Touhou 14(dot)41 - Otherworldly Phantom
by Satz the Mage
Summary: Three outsiders, bound by threads of perverse fate, are thrown into the magical realm unknown to them. One of them a sorceress, unwavering and ruthless in taking that what she desires; the second one a young noble lady, whose only wish is to see home again; and the third one a creature not very different from those of Gensokyo, bereft of memories. Random incidents inbound. OCs. HF.
1. S00-The Girls Are Now Trying to Sleep

Author's Note and Disclaimer:

Hello Reader! This is the first chapter of my fanfiction story based on Touhou Project. Depending on my motivation, it's going to be an adventure/comedy/action(?) story, hard to say right now.

I haven't published anything for a long time, so you could say I'm crash-testing this one. A word of warning: English is not my native language. Just saying, in case you wondered why are your eyes bleeding so much.

I'd also like to ask for any form of criticism you make to be constructive. Be honest, but try to elaborate. If it sucks bad, tell me why.

Touhou Project is not in any way owned by me, all copyright belongs to ZUN.

* * *

**Stage 00 - The Girls Are Now Trying to Sleep**

A blood-stained figure moaned quietly, lying face down in the thin forest grass. Its presence was yet unknown to two women wandering around helplessly, the older one casting curses around her, the one in her mid-teens trying not to let her sobs be heard. Lost in a dark giant labyrinth of tall trees with no end it seemed like two most sensible things to do.

The wounded one, sobered a little bit by continuous vulgarisms, raised her head and looked around. There was nothing around her, just darkness. _Why is it so dark? Have I lost my sight? Did someone turn off the sun? Sun... Day... Night... Yes, I remember... Urghh, my head aches when I try to think..._

_Who am I?_

'Hey, are you okay?' a voice asked. _There is someone in the darkness. Sounds like... ugh, what was the word... wo-man? Should I answer? If so, in what way?_

'What do you think?' another voice responded, strained by withheld tears and sorrow 'After all that's happened? You said I could go home after I help you, see Mom and Dad again! I didn't agree for something like this!'

_It seems like a quarrel_, the wounded one thought. _Quarrel... what was that again?_

'Nor did I' said the woman 'Everything was going according to the plan until I hit that disturbance within the rift. Must have swallowed you as well and messed up the coordinates. So no matter what, we're in the sa- Oh God, you're not crying, are you?'

'S-sorry' the girl answered back through tears 'I just... got scared back there'

'You and me both' she sighed 'Believe me, I've seen many things in my life, and I consider it to be quite exciting. But I've never encountered anything even slightly resembling THAT.'

'What was that?'

'As I say, no idea. Listen, whether we like it or not, we're in the same boat. Standing around here isn't going to help us in any way. Let us first find some shelter and get some sleep, wait until sun rises. Then I'll try to come up with something good, okay?'

'What about the beasts? We're in a forest, aren't we?'

'Considering it's a whole another dimension, I'd say wolves and bears are the least of our problems.'

She then walked up to the young girl and patted her on the head reassuringly, in a way a parent would do, or so she thought.

'Don't worry so much, sweetheart' she whispered to her 'I'll protect you'

'Don't call me that' the girl replied but eventually agreed and followed the woman, trying to find a safe place and not trip on a fallen branch or root in the thick darkness. Or a body.

The listener of the conversation so far tried to crawl her way out of there as well, keeping right behind the other two's footsteps. Her own limbs didn't make the task any easier, swelled and burning as if covered in thousands of small cuts. She collapsed eventually, making an audible "thump" that reached the other women's ears.

'What was that?' the teenage girl jumped and clutched onto the woman's arm.

'I don't know, but it seems to have come from behind us. Let me make some light...'

As the woman made a faint gesture with her hand a small bright sphere appeared floating in the air some 3 metres above the ground. The trees cast long shadows pointing away from the shiny orb, giving a disquieting impression of being in the centre of a gigantic spider web.

'Well, well, well' the woman said amusedly 'If it isn't our interloper'

The words sent a chill down the wounded girl's spine. _Oh my. They've found me. What are they going to do to me? Who's an inter-something? Why am I still blind?_

'Is that... a necktie wrapped around her eyes?' asked the girl in disbelief.

'I could have sworn so when I first saw her, but didn't want to believe'

_Oh. That explains a lot._

As the cloth was forcefully removed, the wounded girl's vision exploded with infinite whiteness. A few seconds had to pass in order for her to see normally. While she recovered, invisible binds immobilised her, according to the sorceress' wish.

Restrained and forced to look directly at her oppressors' faces, she was bewitched by their strange appearance. The woman, the magician, had straight black hair with a tint of purple amongst its long strings and wore a simple, yet elegant ebony ball dress and a cape over it. The younger one was standing right behind the witch, her frightened face hidden in strands of golden brown hair. Her dress was not as formal, blue in colour, frilly and horribly worn out, as though it survived a war.

There was something bizarre about their attire and overall presence, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. _Out of place_ was the only expression that came to her blank mind, its meaning unknown.

'A lovely evening, isn't it?' asked the sorceress, faking a smile 'It seems we've met before, however due to some unfortunate circumstances we were unable to properly greet one another. Do you, by any chance, remember?'

'Not really' the interrogated girl answered. _It's true!_

'Oh? Troubles with memory? Do you wish me to refresh it? With a firebolt maybe?'

'I'd like to know what going on, thank you' said the wounded one, without the slightest hint of sarcasm in her voice. She wouldn't have know the concept of it anyway.

'Did you hear what I heard, Media?' the woman asked the girl clad in blue 'Because the way I understood it was that she doesn't remember what happened a few minutes ago, is that right?'

The girl nodded. 'She did say that'

'Perfect. Good to know my ears are still in their prime state despite the age. Now listen closely, you...' she gave her a judging look '...abomination. You probably don't realise that what you've just done made my great plans founder miserably. Years of careful calculation, months of preparation, weeks of gradual realisation – all of that ruined by your sudden emergence in the interplanary rift. Feeling happy?'

'Not exactly, my head aches and I'm hungry' said the living example of honesty to the core. _It's also cold and kind of scary. I don't like it~_

'Damn right. Not only that, but you've also scared my poor innocent Media to death. How could you hurt such a fragile and pure flower? Have you no heart? She's like a sister, no – a daughter to me...'

'Try "a hostage"' replied the girl, only to be hushed down.

'More importantly, thanks to you we're stuck in this dimension with no means to go back. I can't even imagine how you've managed to screw my magic up to such an extent. One thing I know, though' as the witch said that, a hideous smile appeared on her face 'is that I'll enjoy getting the information out of you, bit. By. Bit.'

'You're just going to violate her, just like you'd tried once with me, right?'

'You're saying unnecessary things, Media'

'NEVER! I'll never tell you where it is!' the restrained girl yelled with such a power that her own ears hurt a little.

'Now, where what is?'

'You can kill me, but I won't give in!'

'Sure I can! Well?' the sorceress summoned some supporting arguments in form of a few blazing spears, suspended in the mid-air, pointed at the girl 'Fancy telling us?'

'East...'

'What?'

'Their base is to the east, in an old cave...'

'What the blazes are you babbling about?!'

'I thought you wanted information!'

'Not that sort of information! You're not a prisoner of war! Yet. Have you lost your mind?'

'Highly probable'

The sorceress let a sigh. 'Media, hold me, or I'll kill her on the spot!'

_This is looking bad_, the girl thought. _I wonder if I said something wrong?_

Her captors definitely thought so. Engulfed in discussion, arguing what to do with the "monster" they've found, they stopped paying attention to her at some point, letting her take a look at the binding spell holding her in place.

_These binds seem strong. The bad sister knows what she's doing. If only I could escape somehow..._

_...Couldn't I?_

The moment she tried to figure out the way to freedom that was on her mind, darkness, like a giant mouth engulfed her, making her lose sight of her surroundings. It felt as though she was floating in nothingness – a world with no sense of direction nor time. Another moment later she was back in the forest, but no trace of those who caught her.

The trees were so thick it might as well have been a tomb, not even moonlight reaching the ground, not even the gentlest wind grazing the tree tops. It was disquieting, but calming also. Worn out by her experiences so far, the girl decided it would be best if she simply went to sleep. Closing her eyes, she could have sworn she saw a rectangular shape of some building in the distance. Before she even thought about it, fatigue had overcome her and she fell asleep on the spot.

* * *

Under the night sky in full moon ancient powers awaken. Those who in the daylight were no different from your everyday usual people you casually pass on the streets and live next to each other as neighbours, reveal their true face, nature and intentions. Half-beasts. Vampires. Youkai. Having centuries or even millennia of existence to live before them, they do their best not to let this time be wasted or spent in boredom. Hence incidents occur.

This night, although none of Gensokyo's residents was eager enough to scheme anything, there was something strange in the air that made even the strongest youkai frown in worry. The sudden appearance of the three outsiders was rather felt that directly known and rendered many sleepless and anxious. All except one, resting happily on the forest floor.

In the same forest, the Forest of Magic, barely a few hundred metres away from the sleeping girl, stood a shop and a house of a certain kleptomaniac magician. Tons of items of various use and origin were scattered everywhere, covering each single inch of available level surface. For an outsider, it was impossible to think of it either as a place for living or doing business.

A blonde girl wearing a black and white dress evidently had a different opinion. Magic grimoires, a bunch of sealing talismans "borrowed" from a local shrine, rusty kettles, glowing mushrooms – all of it (and more) was lying in disorder on the table near her, which didn't bother her in any way. Her gaze and attention were fixed elsewhere, too busy observing reactions occurring inside a vial containing a greyish liquid hung over a fire.

'Lookin' good, ain't it?' she muttered to herself with satisfaction.

The Youkai Elixir was almost ready.

Seeing the process is approaching its finale, Marisa let a sigh of relief. She was so nervous about that potion, like no other enterprise she's ever decided on. Who wouldn't be, after all? Brewing a mixture from some shady book she snatched from the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library is one thing. Stealing required ingredients from Kourindou is another. The alchemic process itself was also surprisingly easy. The real issue was, what to do with it once it's finished? After all, an elixir than can turn you into one of the youkai is kind of a big deal.

As she watched the unappealing substance in amazement, some part of her consciousness still bothered itself with a question of how exactly it came to that. The only answer her brain cells could find was a blurry image of another forest dweller, the local puppeteer Alice, looking at her with a smirk on her face, expressing calm yet absolute dominance over the magician, whom she'd beaten in a danmaku fight.

Alice had been once a human, no different from Marisa or the local shrine maiden. Like all of her race, she too had to face her own limitations compared to the youkai, be it longevity, intelligence or power. And she decided to change that. She always attributed her becoming a youkai to the immense amounts of training she went through and power she accumulated, but Marisa considered it to be a half truth. She was convinced it was the other way around – according to her, turning into a youkai was the reason of her absurdly overpowered abilities like commanding an entire private doll army which even her trusty Master Spark couldn't completely obliterate.

She could nearly imagine Alice's face when she came to know she wasn't the only magician-turned-youkai in town. She let her fantasy go wild. A longer life. New spells. Better ways to steal from others. Causing incidents to make the shrine maiden go mad...

Marisa gasped all of a sudden, feeling a fang of guilt stabbing her through her heart.

_Reimu._

Hakurei Reimu, her closest friend and one of the few humans she was in any way acquainted with, most of the times as a Youkai Extermination Duet. A life free of human weaknesses was tempting as much as teaching the doll master a lesson. But to turn against a friend? From a freelance youkai hunter to whose she used to fight?

'Daaaamn, that's why I hate hard moral decisions!' she groaned in despair 'If only I could see the world the way a Yama does...'

The witch stared into the boiling substance yet again. Grey goo provided no answers. _Maybe that's it_, Marisa thought. The world is not so simple after all. White which stands for good, black which stands for evil – both of these are merely names for the different shades of grey the world is full with. No decision is one hundred percent right or wrong. Absolute good and absolute evil are hypothetical terms, opposite axes between which everyday deeds are placed, leaning towards one or another side depending on its "moral" value. But can we really consider morality while rejecting good and evil...?

'Screw that! Darkness, here I come!'

Without a second thought, Marisa took the vial with the elixir and drank it in one gulp. The potion was halfway through her throat when she realised in horror that the mixture had been boiling just a few seconds ago. She let out a cry of pain.

'It's cold!' her eyes widened in surprise. She swore crystals of ice were forming in her lungs and stomach.

Violent shivers surged through her whole body, her face was steaming with heat and she felt her head ache as if it was being split open. It was like a fever, one that could possibly incapacitate the alien immortals of Eientei for at least a week and slowly kill a youkai. Flesh seemed to come off her bones and her veins were on the verge of exploding with a red vapour her blood has become.

_God... God, please don't let me die... I've so much to do... Gotta see Reimu and Alice again... And tell Patchy that I... that I l... lo..._

_...lost her beloved trilogy in the Netherworld and now the ghosts have it._

Her torment lasted no more than five minutes, yet to her it felt like hours of neverending torture on her body cells and repentance for her sins, during which she begged every single god or deity she's heard of only to let her breathe a bit longer. Her pleads appeared to have been answered, as at some point during Marisa's prayers, her misfortune was suddenly taken away from her.

The black-white was relieved of the hellish anguish. She let out a sigh of relief and a faint sob.

'I'll behave, whoever helped me...' she whispered and fell unconscious on the spot, namely on the floor.

That night was one full of further pain and suffering in the world of dreams of Marisa Kirisame, an unsuccessful magician-turned-youkai. She was lucky in a way though, being one of the two residents of Gensokyo not bothered by insomnia.


	2. S01 - The Path The Youkai Tread

**Stage 01 - The Path The Youkai Tread**

'Cirno, please think again!'

Daiyousei's pleads for her friend to stop appeared to have been shouted out in vain. The stubborn ice fairy of the Misty Lake glided steadily over the ground, passing by the red-tinted walls of the magnificent manor of Remilia Scarlet. She could easily bring temperature of any substance to absolute zero, yet her eyes were burning with passion and fixed straight forward. Were it not for the rising sun, she would be able to see the a faint outline of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, her destination. The place where her greatest natural enemy resided. The enemy she's definitely going to beat, proving her infinite strength at the same time.

_Two birds with one stone._ A saying she heard once from Keine. It seemed appropriate on such an occasion.

She didn't get its meaning, though.

'Cirno!'

'Shaddup, Dai!' the ice fairy backtalked, not even slowing down 'This doesn't concern you, so don't stand in my way!'

'I'm simply worried about what could happen to you! Remember the last time, when you tried to challenge that half-ghost swordsman?'

Cirno remembered, surprisingly enough. Although, one would surely keep in memory an encounter with a furious sword-wielding gardener of the Netherworld whose ancestors' good name had been gravely insulted by one ice-fairy's big mouth. It became clear soon enough that her ice wasn't able to block a katana blade; that's why most of the "battle" was more like a frantic escape or, as Cirno prefers to call it, a "tactical retreat". The fight ended with a draw, as the fairy avoided joining the ghost ranks thanks to Youmu's master who called her back. To Cirno, however, the victory was hers as she didn't leave the battlefield.

Not that she didn't think of it even once. But she'd never admit that. She was the strongest after all.

She faced Daiyousei in her usual triumphant pose. 'Hey, I won, okay? And it would have been a crushing defeat for her if that other ghost hadn't showed up! Hah! I bet it watched our fight and got scared that her friend would get a beating from the mighty me!'

'I'm sure it was something else...' Daiyousei muttered, resigned a little bit. Cirno lives in her own little world and drawing her out of it was a Sisyphean task.

'Hmpf' the ice fairy spat defiantly 'I'm disappointed with you, Daiyousei. I thought you would support me all the time'

'I'm always rooting for you, Cirno! But I don't want you to die!'

'Why would I die? It will be HER who'll die today!'

'Isn't she immortal?'

'Hey, I'm the strongest, remember?'

Cirno flew higher to the sky. She could now see the glowing orb of the sun rising over the horizon. Gensokyo was slowly awakening and all of it, from east to west, was below her. She was on the top of the world. It felt great.

'I'm going to show everyone I'm not just a blabbering idiot! I, a fairy, may appear weaker than the youkai, kappa, oni or whatever, but I'm the strongest! Not just the strongest fairy – the strongest of all in the universe! Everything shall fall under my might! I will freeze lakes and rivers! I'll turn the air into snow! I'll extinguish Hell itself, so don't anyone dare say I can't take her head on! To battle!'

Having said that, she flew at full speed towards east, leaving her fairy friend behind. Daiyousei sighed and simply accepted the reality. Cirno can't possibly change after all.

'But to decide over breakfast to duel Mokou, of all people...'

As she said that, Fujiwara no Mokou sneezed, wandering around the bamboo forest in her usual manner.

'Must be that damn princess' she said, sniffing.

* * *

The sound of someone knocking on the door was the first thing Marisa heard right before falling face down right into a puddle of dried up vomit she helped "create" overnight. _Good thing I didn't suffocate_, she thought while wiping herself clean with a piece of paper towel. God, she felt horrible. And looked likewise.

_**Knock knock knock.**_

Ignoring the persistent noise for a moment, Marisa strove to recall the events of the night before she collapsed. To no avail. Images in her head were blurry and shapeless. _Some elixir?_, she thought, having taken a look at the alchemical equipment set on the table and half-used ingredients. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to have any effect on her, save for memory loss, nausea and diarrhoea.

_**Ding-dong.**_

_Shit, they must have found the doorbell._

_**Ding-dong ding-dong.**_

_Leave me alone._

_**Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong.**_

_I think I need a bowl. Gonna puke._

_**Ding-do-**_

'All right, dammit, I'm coming!' she yelled, flinching in pain at her own voice.

The clock above the door showed 7AM. _Who would come all the way here that early? Alice? That's unlike her, she's always making a fuss about unexpected visits. Reimu? Unless it's the end of the world or no donations this month – impossible. Yukari wouldn't even bother with using doors. Were she ever to pay me a visit, she'd appear right on my sofa, demanding tea and biscuits._

Other youkai generally had no business with her, unless it was a matter of revenge for being beaten while helping the shrine maiden solve the incidents or when they wanted to get their stuff back. There were few individuals looking for yet another fight. They hardly ever bore a grudge against others and were able to rationally evaluate their own strength. Except for one ice fairy.

And as for the latter folk, they learned quite quickly that having something borrowed by the black-white magician had more or less the same effect as burying it deep underground never to see it again.

_Must be one of these thickhead fairies. And probably the dumbest one of them all. She never learns._

She opened the door, not even throwing a glance at the visitor and blurted out before they could speak:

'I don't know if it's a joke or you want a rematch, but I'm not in the mood right now, so if you could please leave, Cir-'

Marisa stopped mid-word, realising it was not Cirno who came to see her. Instead of an insolent big-mouthed tomboy who'd throw icebolts at her the moment she spotted the magician, her eyes saw a sight much more bizarre.

Imagine a girl with a shock of messy short blonde hair. Now add a red necktie wrapped around her head in a manner of a headband, with its blade hanging down between her eyes like a jiang shi talisman. If that hasn't confused you enough, take a look at a pair of huge pearl-white angel wings protruding from her back, quivering nervously as if eager to fly.

The most bewildering thing about her though, according to Marisa, was that the stranger was evidently clad in Yuuka Kazami's clothes. No mistake about that – only Yuuka had so much courage and so little fashion sense (according to her) to wear this uniformly red plaid set comprising a waistcoat and a skirt, plus a white shirt and a little piece of yellow cloth round her neck. As Marisa noticed, the skirt missed a few of its round golden buttons – loose strings were found in their place. One of the buttons was shaped like a star and there was something engraved on its surface. On a closer inspection it resembled a Chinese "dragon" sign.

Marisa gulped. _A war trophy gained on the gatekeeper?_

'How can I help?' she asked politely, hoping to find out who she's talking to through a casual conversation.

'Hi' replied the girl, a broad smile on her face 'Who are you?'

_Well, that was blunt_, thought Marisa. _Shouldn't it be me who's supposed to ask questions like this?_

'Marisa Kirisame, Gensokyo's Most Talented Magician and Part-Time Youkai Exterminator. Marisa for short. Now, what is it?'

'Um...'

'Yes? Did you want anything?' the magician suddenly felt sick again. Her muscles sprained so as not to let her stomach contents out.

_State what you want or go away already!_

'No, not really. I woke up here in the forest a short time ago and I immediately noticed this amazing structure over here!'

'You mean...' Marisa turned her back, giving her residence a glance '...my house?'

'Yes, I... I think so' said the girl, seemingly troubled. Marisa noticed that the stranger's eyes were closed or at least squinting most of the time.

_Is her eyesight messed up? Or something else?_

'Do people actually live in these?'

'Where?'

'Inside houses'

'Um, yeah. All the time'

'Really?'

'Really' Marisa couldn't help but give the girl a puzzled frown.

_It's as if I were speaking with a child. A youkai one._

'Wow.' the stranger's amazement was bottomless 'Makes some sense though. I always thought people made nests. That's because I have wings, you see. You don't have wings, do you?'

'N-no.' _I have a broomstick, if that one counts._

'Thought so. The other two I met were wingless as well. Strange.'

Marisa's head was aching now, either due to her own illness or the girl's nonsensical blabbering.

_Just who the hell is that?_ Marisa kept asking that herself while fighting the urge to finally get the bowl she so long desired. Not only was that a new face, but a youkai as well. In Yuuka's garments, no less. And the first business she has, whatever it might be, is with her, not the shrine maiden.

_Smells like an incident. Reimu's gotta hear 'bout this._

The stranger was having fun of her life pressing the doorbell over and over again. Marisa could only sigh in resignation.

'If you didn't come here with a particular purpose, could you please go somewhere else?' she asked.

'Huh?'

'I asked whether you could leave, pretty please.'

If the winged youkai could be compared to a balloon, – a big, bright-coloured balloon with a wide smile painted on it – one could say she was slowly deflating as the magician's words got to her. The heart-warming smile that used to be stuck to her face all the time now disappeared, turning into a short curve bent downwards. Her wings slumped a bit and became more greyish.

But the worst thing of all, according to Marisa, was her eyes. She finally opened them – huge like saucers and shiny like marbles. It was a sight impossible to bear for anyone without a black hole for a heart in their chest. She was like a puppy.

A winged, oddly-dressed youkai puppy.

'Why?' she asked. The sound of her voice had he power to melt ice and and force one's lacrinal canals to speed up the production of tears tenfold.

If only Marisa weren't so sick, she would have hugged the girl with all her might. The want to empty her stomach was greater still.

'N-no, I didn't mean...' she tried to apologise.

'You're saying I'm a nuisance?'

'No! I just-'

'Is that how you treat all your friends?'

'Friends? I don't even-'

'Fine! I'll go!' the youkai yelled through tears 'I won't take your precious time anymore! I'll just go over there, through the trees and... and... I'LL BUILD MYSELF MY OWN HOUSE! And you know what? You know what?! IT WILL BE BIGGER AND BETTER THAN YOURS!'

The floodgates were broken and she started bawling her eyes out on her knees right in front of the black-white. Marisa felt horrible, both her body and conscience sick.

'I'm sorry...' she made yet another attempt at making up. Her words sounded more like a grumble anyway.

'DON'T YOU COME BORROWING SUGAR FROM ME, 'KAY?' the youkai pierced the air with her voice once again, making glass panes in the house's windows vibrate and Marisa's eardrums to burst.

'I said I'm sorry...'

'AND YOUR FACE IS GREEN!'

Having said that, the winged girl turned around and finally left off into the forest, her hurt feelings taking an advantage over the urge to keep crying. Marisa was simply speechless, standing in the doorway in a total lack of motion, not even a muscle daring to twitch. Stupefied, she still struggled with the meaning behind today's early visit. Her brain, numbed by a hangover resulting from the mystery potion of shady origin, refused to co-operate on that matter.

'Screw you, then, brain. I-'

Before she could finish the sentence, her belly muscles forcefully contracted, making her vomit all over the doormat. Right when she thought she couldn't feel any worse, life itself had to prove her wrong.

'...I don't care anymore.'

* * *

'Stupid bi- ...witch'

The youkai girl was irritated. Actually, to say that would be like calling the local newspaper a bestseller. She was burning with anger inside. Mixed emotions, both ire and sorrow were like two tiny devils playing with atomic bombs as though with snowballs, wrecking her already off-balanced mentality.

'Just what did I do wrong?' she ranted at the top of her lungs. There were no ears around to violate anyway. On the other hand, she wouldn't care much.

'I mean, I was trying to act like a good friend! I even complimented her house! I was simply hoping that she would show me around the place and tell me what to do! I popped out of nowhere, so did the two from before, and the first thing they do is tie me up and threaten me! I'm lost, hurt and hungry! I don't even know my name! Am I asking for too much?! I...'

'...I JUST WANTED SOME COOKIES!'

He started crying again but her eyes were all dry, probably due to the previous time. While she was sobbing in self-pity she noticed that the wounds from before, along with blood, somehow disappeared.

_They must have gone overnight. No wonder the black-white didn't notice a thing._

The girl jumped as if hit by a lightning. She looked around in terror, searching for the source of she mysterious voice she's just heard.

'Where are you?!' she yelled at the trees.

_Over here._

_'_Are you in my head?'

_Yes._

'WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE?!'

_I'm you. And stop yelling, I can hear you perfectly. It is I speaking, after all._

'...huh?'

_I'm the rational side of your mind. A part of you, in other words. You sounded like you were in distress, so I came to help you by clearing up a few things._

'Wait!'

_What is it?_

'Didn't I hear you before? Like the time when these two mean women caught me and it was like... like I was speaking but I was not. Do you know what I'm saying?'

_These were your thoughts._

'Oh.'

She paused, unsure how to comment on that.

'Neat.'

Indulged in a deep conversation with her own thoughts, the youkai finally stumbled upon a narrow path after another hour of pointlessly walking, hidden from one's sight by short thick bushes. Not paying any attention in particular, she automatically headed right.

Birds were twitting above her head and mushrooms glowing beneath her feet. She smelled flowers.

'Hey, I was wondering...' she asked the little voice in her head 'Do you know who I am?'

_Hmm. I'm afraid I know only a little more than you do. See, I have no memories of what happened before you ended up all beaten up yesterday. _

'Aww' she wailed in disappointment.

_Yeah, there's like a huge gap here in your mind. All the memories of names, places – everything besides some concepts (like speech and others that make you function in an acceptable way) seems to have been wiped out. Sorry._

'Aww'

_I know your name though._

The girl gasped in surprise. She covered her mouth and her eyes began to sparkle.

'Really?' she asked, exalted. Think of a child getting a Christmas present, her reaction was more or less this way.

_Yup. Your name is Riina Ressei. Don't ask me how to write it, though. I've no idea._

'Riina sounds cute~' she delighted at the sound of her name. 'Hi, I'm Riina~'

_Pleased to meet you. Now, let's get to important matters. Namely, what do you intend to do from now on? Oh, wait, you don't have to tell me-_

'I'm going as far away as possible from this stupid black-white and build myself a fabulous house so she can be jelly about it!' Riina exclaimed with pride, raising both her clenched fists high in the air.

_I know, right? I'm your line of thinking, after all._

The girl puffed her cheeks in annoyance. 'If you're so all-knowing, then tell me why did she want me to go away? Did I do anything wrong?'

_What? Are you serious? More like: Did you do anything right? It was early in the morning, the poor girl was evidently sick and pale like Death itself-_

Riina interrupted sharply. 'She was green, okay? All over her face!'

_Fine, green then. But anyway, your only business at such time of a day with a girl in such a condition was to PLAY WITH THE DOORBELL?_

'Of course not, how dare you!' said Riina, highly agitated by her own thoughts. Her wings flapped in a flustered manner a couple of times, as if they shared their owner's emotional state.

'It was all so I could get invited for a tea party!'

_Tea... wait, what?_

'And cookies.'

_How... You're so inconsiderate, you know? No wonder she told you to go away! I mean, her reasons might have been different altogether, but that just now crossed the line! _

'Heey~' Riina whined unhappily. 'Don't be angry with me, okay? Can't we just kiss and be friends?'

_We can't. That's narcissism. _

'OKAY, FINE!'

Whatever birds were hovering above the tree tops just a while before, they all dispersed as the youkai's yell gushed through the leaves like a shockwave. Childishly enraged, Riina continued to walk along the path, kicking every single stone in sight and missing every other time.

'I don't need you' she whispered through clenched teeth. 'I'll be better on my own'

_Sure thing. As if you could run away from me, dummy. But suit yourself. It's not like I can help you anyway without your memories._

* * *

'What sort of a welcome izzat?'

Alice coming to her house so early was a sight strange enough on its own. It didn't look like a planned visit, either. She'd usually bring her own set of tea cups along with several boxes, some of them containing tea, others filled with homemade lunch; all of it carried by a miniature convoy of semi-autonomous dolls. The puppeteer didn't bother using the front door either and thought instead that it would be the best to come through the window on the first floor.

Marisa was more than puzzled. On the other hand, nothing would surprise her any more. Not after this morning's events, as if a bunch of incidents caused by youkai or gods wasn't enough.

'Back at you.' replied Alice, giving the magician a somewhat displeased stare. 'Is that how you greet your guests? Lying shamelessly in bed, without as much as a thought crossing your mind to at least get the door?'

Marisa coughed before answering. 'You never said you wanted to come anyway. And I never heard you ring the doorbell either.'

'How did you expect me to come near that door with...' Alice grimaced in disgust '...such an ugly substance sprayed all over the doorstep?'

'Oh. Right.'

'Don't you "Oh. Right" me! I always knew you were a sloth that doesn't know what the cleaning supplies are for, but that's unlike even you not to care about such a mess! Look at this!'

Alice spread her arms. The room has definitely seen better days. Some bookshelves appeared to have merged together with dust and there were whole colonies of insects residing in the corners and planning another colonisation venture. Magical and alchemical reagents were lying everywhere, interchangeably with books and loot from Kourindou.

Even Marisa had to admit that the doll master's irritation was justifiable.

Alice sighed dramatically. 'And to think it was supposed to be a nice, refreshing walk for health. Seems like I cannot leave you unsupervised even for a split of a second, so as not to let you die buried alive under this pile of junk.'

Still ranting, she commanded some of her dolls to clean the place up a bit. It was fascinating to see the tiny workforce move around and put various objects back where they belonged in an organised, ant-like manner. It didn't take full five minutes and the room appeared thrice its original size and a different place altogether.

'It's not like I'm doing this for you.' said Alice after the dolls dealt with the task.

Marisa tried not to sound sarcastic. 'Sure thing, Alice.'

'I cannot stand the mess, that's all there is to it.'

'Thank you, Alice. I appreciate that.'

Marisa let a silent, satisfied chuckle as she observed the puppeteer's face blush with embarrassment. _She's always like that_, the black-white thought. The other girl snapped out of it in a moment, giving a sharp "Hmpf" as an answer.

'S-so,' Alice tried to change the subject. 'what was it this time? Playing an alchemist? I didn't think that any second-rate magician without necessary knowledge or skills could start being one out of the blue. How did you even manage to stay alive?'

'Save the reprimand for later, 'kay?' mumbled Marisa. 'My head's splitting in half.'

'Serves you right. Karma has finally taken revenge on you for all that thievery, lies and baseless boasting. Anyway, what was it that you were trying to create?'

The only response she got was silence. Marisa deliberately avoided eye contact with Alice, which didn't go unnoticed.

'Marisa?' she asked expectingly, tapping her foot.

'Come on, my stomach's killing me, can't you just-'

'Tell me and I'll leave.'

'Like hell I'll do that.'

'Stop being infantile and spit it out already! How am I supposed to know whether what you drank is or not a threat to your life?'

Marisa cursed under her nose. She wished she could just die on the spot without having to explain herself in front of Alice – her, of all people!

Alice was both a friend and a sworn rival, but above all she tended to put a motherly act in front of her. Marisa suspected what the puppeteer's reasons for this behaviour are but never let Alice know, always playing dumb and enjoying her getting embarrassed at supposedly accidental compliments or kind words. She knew she cared about her, but it was like a double-edged sword. In a situations like this one in particular, Alice never let go, striving to get to the source of the problem.

_No other way out, it seems._

Marisa muttered something inaudibly.

'Excuse me?' asked Alice.

'...kai elix...'

'Once again?'

'Youkai Elixir, dammit! Youkai Elixir, Youkai Elixir!'

A short while after the magician snapped there was an awkward silence. There was no reaction at all on Alice's part and that fact alone seemed disquieting to Marisa. The girl was just standing there and staring at her the same way she was a minute ago.

Little did she know, it was merely silence before the storm.

A sudden burst of laughter caught Marisa off guard. Her instinct told her to look around to find the source of it. It couldn't have been Alice after all, could it?

The puppeteer was half-bent, holding both hands on her belly, shaking in spasms as she laughed manically and gasped for air. It was such a strange sight to behold that Marisa pinched her own cheek to do the standard reality check.

It eventually got on her nerves. 'S-shut up already! S-so I wanted to become a youkai, so what?! A big deal!'

Alice started to laugh even harder, deepening the magician's annoyance more and more every second.

'Snap out of it! You're not being yourself!'

'S-sorry...' muttered Alice, wiping a tear off her eyelid. 'It's just... I haven't heard anything as hilarious as this in years. What made you think you could transform into a youkai with a stupid potion?'

'The grimoire on the table' Marisa pointed at the book, strangely omitted by Shanghai/Hourai cleaning squad.

Alice took a glance at the cover. '"Borrowed" from Patchouli, I guess? Hmm, if that's the case... I wouldn't eliminate the possibility of such potion's existence completely, seeing to whom the tome belongs to **and** the fact that the aliens have created a substance of much greater power, but still... would you mind telling me the page?'

'Like... 258, or something?'

After skimming through a couple of pages the puppeteer found the right one and proceeded to read it carefully. Not even ten seconds passed when she let out another series of short laughs.

'Gimme a break already! So much fun, let's laugh at the magician!' wailed Marisa as she hid her own face in a pillow.

Alice apologised once again, then walked up to Marisa's bed and threw the book right onto her lap, open on the said page.

'Tell me, Marisa,' she asked her. 'how do you spell the word "youkai"?'

'What d'you mean? Isn't that what it says in the grimoire? See, it's "youkai", ain't it?'

'True, it is. "溶解", as in "dissolution". Not "妖怪", which stands for the actual youkai as a creature. You thickhead, you should be lucky none of your internal organs did actually melt.'

Marisa felt her cheeks were starting to burn red hot. Seeing a hideous smile of amusement appear on Alice's face, she looked in the opposite direction, fully aware it's not going to help her stop feeling awkward.

_It is my worst day ever, _she thought. _And it hasn't even properly started yet._


	3. S02 - The Newspaper The Miko Hated

Author's Note: First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who decided to give this tiny little story of mine a try. Even though it is a really small readership, you guys motivate me to keep writing. Wish me luck and that I don't screw this up!

* * *

**Stage 02 - The Newspaper The Miko Hated**

A faint jingle could be heard from the floor below. Media flinched at the sound and even more so at the mere thought of what she's being made to do.

She hurried downstairs, jumping over every second step, yet careful not to tear the uniform her mistress had literally forced on her. A classical black and white maid suit. She hated it. Not because of it being uncomfortable to wear; the material it was made of was pleasant to touch and it didn't restrain her movements in the manner most of her dresses tended to do. The source of the problem was elsewhere.

She has been made a servant!

As a young lady from a noble house she used to lead a life of luxury. She had legions of maids at her command, loyal and ready to serve her the best they could. She never attempted to abuse the power she had over them; her father took great care of that, constantly repeating that despite their higher social rank they should treat everyone equally and with respect.

Still, it was a humiliating experience for Media. And her new mistress had the tendency to make sure it gets even worse.

She was sitting on what resembled a throne. The structure was made wholly out of one huge white marble block, covered in carvings resembling some long forgotten ancient language. It certainly stood out like a lone island in the ocean, at the same time too tiny and magnificent for the walls surrounding it. In the main hall, vast in size, there were few pieces of furniture and none of them could even think of competing with the snow-white marvel. Most of them appeared roughly made and unfinished, built out of unrefined wood.

The girl stopped, ten steps away from the throne and curtseyed in the manner she was being taught since early childhood. Both etiquette and her mistress demanded that.

'You called, milady?' she asked politely, awaiting orders.

The woman clapped in delight, letting a quiet giggle. She was wearing a long black dress and little else besides it, save for an odd necklace around her neck. Its shape was impossible to tell and just a short glance at it was mesmerising.

'Beautifully done, Media' she praised the girl. 'Continue to be such an obedient maid to me and I'll... reward you accordingly.'

The way she spoke gave Media goosebumps. It was like this since the day the two had met. Dark, vile fantasies often found a way out of Latya's mind and soaked into her words, so it wasn't hard for Media to deduce just what sort of reward the woman was talking about.

In short, she considered her creepy as hell.

'How can I be of service?' Media asked, deliberately trying to ignore Latya's remarks.

The woman gave a dismissive wave of hand. 'Oh, it's not like I wanted anything in particular. In fact, there's hardly a point in keeping a maid to serve you when you're a mage.'

_Unless looking at girls in maid's uniform is your pastime,_ the girl thought.

Latya continued. 'I don't need this sort of services right now. It's just... I presume it's loneliness that's getting to me. I was hoping if you could keep me company for the time being. If you could find yourself a seat, please?'

Media looked around. There was hardly anything resembling as much as a chair, or at least a stool.

'Where should I-'

'Wherever suits you.'

_Thanks for nothing, old hag._

Given little choice, Media stretched her arm towards the nearest coffee table, or a chunk of wood that looked like it. A brief concentration of will later, the piece of furniture was floating slowly towards her in a straight line. As she made a faint gesture it stopped suspended in mid-air, only to land gently on the floor with a soft knock.

It certainly didn't make a good seat. As soon as Media sat on the tabletop, she felt the unplaned planks prickle her bottom through the material of her suit. One wrong move and she was sure it would not only tear her skirt but drive in a couple of splinters as well.

Complaining would be of little use. Latya wouldn't stop teasing her about it.

'Now, entertain me.' said the mistress.

Media's eyelid twitched unnoticeably to the woman. 'Pardon me, but I believe that sort of duty belongs to a court jester, not a maid.'

'You're not a maid.' Latya responded immediately. 'But you do have a point. You're so much better a source of amusement for me under natural conditions. Although, seeing you angry works pretty fine too. Anyway, tell me then, what do you think of our new mansion? Just be honest.'

Media took another glance at the hall. She couldn't notice anything impressive about it save for its size. The walls were grey and ugly, the interior – virtually cloaked in dust, and the smell... She tried not to breathe too much. There wasn't a single nice word coming to her mind. Calling it an unfinished architect's work seemed like an overstatement.

'It's... empty.' she finally uttered.

Latya stared at her with one eyebrow raised. 'Empty? Indeed it is, but you forgot "sickening" and "hideous as Hell itself". What's wrong with you, Media? Has your tongue lost its sharpness it had back in the forest? I enjoyed it way more than your bland courteousness now.'

_If that's the way you want to play, __then __count me in_, thought Media.

Putting her manners aside for a while, she crossed her legs and put on a ladylike expression on her face.

'Where do I even start? To say it is ugly is to speak highly of it. Are there any windows that aren't nailed down in this dark coffin? Does the sun even make an effort to rise? If I were it, I wouldn't, as I am sure it is as an execrable sight from the outside. Were it not for the orbs of light you've conjured, it would be so dark I would want to kill myself. On a second thought, a suicide is still an option as I have no other choice but look at this desolated interior. Who were these pieces made by, a lumberjack? It hurts to even look, and I am sitting on such an excuse of a table right now! And the beds upstairs? There are better ones in my father's dungeon. Sweet goodness, what are the duvets filled with, cobble? I swear I got bruises all over my body after just one night. Not to mention the-'

Media's disquisition was interrupted all of a sudden by Latya's sharp laughter. She seemed genuinely delighted, which was actually the first time Media saw her in that state. In all other cases she was being scathingly sarcastic.

'My, my. That was just precious.' the mistress said. 'You sure didn't hold back, did you?'

'I didn't. If anything, I may have exaggerated.'

'"May have", is it?' Latya giggled. 'Oh well. It's not like I put my heart and soul into building this thing and there are so many things desperately needing a finishing touch... Makes me want to puke when I think about much work needs to be done.'

'Just wait a second!'

'My, what is it?'

'Did you...' Media stared at the sorceress with disbelief painted on her face. 'You... **built** this? I mean, all of this?'

'Why, yes. A neat trick, isn't it? One of your father's best, if you ask me. Still a little unrefined, as you can see, but the blame is on him. After a little this and that he suddenly... stopped being so eager to share his knowledge with me.'

The girl's face was burning with embarrassment. She assumed the building they moved in just yesterday was some derelict granary. To think that one could raise such structures with the use of magic was astounding. Despite all she's been put through, Media developed a tiny bit of something like awe or respect towards Latya. The building's condition may not have been first-class, but still...

Still...

_Wait._

_Just wait a minute..._

'JUST WHAT SORT OF "THIS AND THAT" WERE YOU DOING WITH MY FATHER?!"

* * *

Riina sneezed.

_Bless you_, said the voice in her head.

Even though she wasn't on good terms with her own mind since the argument back in the forest and both of them swore not to ever talk to each other again, the youkai girl had more important issues at hand than continuing to bear a grudge. Her sinuses were brimming with a slimy substance to a point she felt they're about to explode any second. Gallons of the liquid were gushing out of her nostrils. Her watery eyes rendered her virtually blind.

_A pollen allergy_, hinted the voice. _You'd better head elsewhere, and fast. It's making me dizzy as well, you know._

Riina shook her head in disapproval. 'I hate it as well, whatever pollen is. But can't you see how beautiful it is around here?'

_No, I can't. As if you didn't squint your eyes enough, your vision is all blurry thanks to the tears._

'It's like miniature suns everywhere!'

A few thoughts later, Riina was informed that she had most probably stumbled upon a sunflower field somewhere on the verge of the forest. Her reasoning capability didn't let her fathom the mystery of the pollen, though. Disregarding her mind's further warnings, she continued her stroll down the field, sneezing and sniffing.

At some point of her walk, she noticed a red blot standing amidst the sea of golden petals. Having wiped the tears off her eyes, she realised it must be a person.

A lone woman, her gaze fixed far in the distance, was standing there in absolute silence and motionless. If not for an occasional gust of wind grazing the sunflowers and the stranger's clothes, Riina would have believed she's staring at a painting, not a scene in real life.

The childish joy she had a while ago slowly disappeared from her heart, replaced by a much more powerful sensation. Her body went numb and shivering simultaneously and she felt something heavy in her chest. It was throbbing painfully, as if of sorrow. But at the same time she relished the unknown emotion. She spread her arms wide, desiring to keep this image for herself forever.

_What on Earth are you doing?_

Riina jumped at the sound of the voice. 'W-what's the problem?'

_I have a bad feeling about that person, that's the problem. You're in plain sight, it's just the matter of seconds until she spots you._

'What do you mean? I'm going to make her my friend! I mean, she looks so... so...' she zoned out into her own world again.

_Pretty, perhaps?_

Riina flinched in shock. 'How did you know? Are you reading my mind?!'

_First, don't yell! You're going to attract unwanted attention if you do!_

'But I want her attention! I want her to notice me! Should I call out to her?'

_For the love of... DON'T! You have no idea what sort of a person she is! She might not be even human!_

The girl gasped. 'You know what? You're racist! And it's you that has no idea about people and... and... and stuff, yeah! If she's pretty, she must be nice! Don't you know such basic facts?'

_What sort of twisted logic is this? And stop calling me names! I am you, have you forgotten already?_

Riina apparently has. She raised her arm high in the air and started waving frantically as she yelled at the top of her lungs:

'Heeeey! Pretty lady, over here! Hellooooo~!'

The woman flinched and looked around in confusion, as if awoken from a deep slumber. Having noticed the winged youkai hopping in one place in joy, she revealed the shock of grass-green hair and the red plaid uniform, previously hidden from sight by her parasol.

Yuuka Kazami let out a giggle of amusement as she waved back.

* * *

_**Sweep. Sweep.**_

Life as a shrine maiden can be tedious.

_**Sweep. Sweep.**_

Being an instrument of the gods, possessing the ability to summon forth their powers, solving various incidents caused by bored youkai. It certainly does sound exciting when you think of it. It's an incredible honour and responsibility too. Maintaining peace in an entire dimension filled with all sorts of mythical creatures that the outside world believes exist only in folklore and legends is something that does make a shrine maiden proud of her job.

But there is a flip side to it. One that includes sweeping and making tea.

Reimu Hakurei gave a hollow sigh as she leaned of the broomstick, having finished the task of removing dust and leaves that amass each day at the shrine entrance. To say she was slightly depressed was like saying that Cirno's intelligence surpasses a kindergartner; unlike the ice fairy, Keine's pupils knew what 2+2 is. If a Yama sees the world in black in white, Reimu perceived it as uniformly black.

_Let something happen_, she prayed to the gods. She realised it was wrong to ask for others' misfortune, especially as a shrine maiden who's supposed to prevent it from happening. However, the way she was right now, she'd be ready to declare a war. A long, bloody war on a mass scale.

_Or even better, wait until the next full moon and let Flandre play around, _she thought. _I'd have to ask Marisa for help, though..._

Come to think of it, the black-white in question didn't show up. Normally she'd be bothering Reimu as soon as she got up. It was half past one already. She didn't consider it unnatural to think that the troublemaker finally got what's been coming to her for a long deal of time.

On a second thought, Reimu would lie if she said she wasn't worried about her friend. It's true that Marisa was infamous for her rich criminal record; the number of thefts she has committed roughly equalled Remilia's age. Times five. No wonder that there wasn't a place in Gensokyo where she would receive a warm welcome, disliked by youkai and gods alike. That is not to say she cared much for closed gates or walls – flying over them was a piece of cake for a witch with a magic broom.

While loud, arrogant and tiresome, Marisa's presence at Hakurei Shrine wasn't something Reimu would mind. Quite the opposite in fact but, of course, she'd never said that out loud, especially in front of the magician. Deep inside, she felt grateful. She was not sure to whom: her shrine god or Marisa herself. Either way, having a companion such as that black-white by her side brought a tiny ray, or rather a spark of happiness, friendship and a feeling she doesn't have to carry the burden of her duties and withstand everyday tedium completely alone. To think that the only visitors she could ever get would be like a certain gap youkai that she's being constantly watched by made her shudder.

Speaking of the devil... Reimu took a quick look around, waiting for Yukari to appear out of thin air as usual. Nothing but some fairies far in the sky above, apparently playing danmaku. It was more like a snowball fight than a serious battle but you can never tell with fairies.

Anyhow, Marisa was somewhat precious to Reimu, even though she suspected the only reason her shrine hasn't got robbed yet was that there wasn't anything to be stolen, save for the donations she gets once in a blue moon.

A sudden surge of abashment hit her as she realised she was hugging her broomstick. Come to think of it, Marisa had a similar one. The mere thought made her thank the magician hadn't showed up after all. She'd have a ball making fun of the shrine maiden for weeks.

Reimu accidentally caught a glance of something white lying in the grass. _This morning's newspaper_, she judged after picking it up. How had she managed to miss something as conspicuous as that made her wonder.

Although she wasn't a dedicated reader of Bunbunmaru Newspaper, she decided to at least skim the pages, having nothing better to do except drinking a hot cup of tea. Just looking at the headings made the articles look ridiculously out of proportion. Aya's speciality.

**BUNBUNMARU NEWSPAPER: The fastest juicy news in Gensokyo!**

**A RESOLVE STRONGER THAN ICE!**

**Gensokyo's number one infamous ice fairy is at it again! Will there be Great Fairy War II?**

**CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND NEAR THE BAMBOO FOREST?**

**Villagers claim to have seen and contacted with aliens. Is there something they don't want us to know?**

**KAPPA INVENTOR TO INSTALL ROBOTIC PROSTHESES FOLLOWING ACCIDENT**

"**I've never asked for this" says the injured party.**

**YAMA TO DECLARE A NEW LAW**

**Shikieiki Yamaxanadu pushes her project to punish stalking by death. Suika appeals.**

**INSOMNIA AND UNKNOWN VOICES**

**Independent sources claim to have spotted outsiders in the Forest of Magic last night. Will the shrine maiden take action?**

Reimu's eyes stopped at the last heading. _Last night..._ Indeed, she didn't get any sleep which partially contributed to her horrible mood today; she assumed the cause of it to have been the moon shining too brightly, though. If there actually were any dark forces in action and these outsiders are not just another drunkard's dream, then this could mean only one thing.

Aya should lose her job for not posting such info on the first page. Also, an incident.

Getting fired up, Reimu took a closer look at the article:

_Denizens of the Forest of Magic, as well as passers-by, have reported hearing strange voices coming from somewhere in the trees last night. "It was a bright, moonlit night; yet, the tree tops were too thick to let me see what was happening down there", says Mystia Lorelei, one of the witnesses._

_The incident is said to have taken place during 1:00-1:30AM timespan. Ms Lorelei further claims the voices, though chaotic at first, soon became a most live conversation. She and other witnesses can't recognise any of the voices, believing them to be newcomers to Gensokyo._

"_It sounded like a quarrel", states Rumia, who wandered near the area that night. "Two or three people were talking, one of them even threatened the other. But I can't remember what was it all about."_

_Are the supposed "outsiders" real? If so, how did they find a way into our realm? What is their intention? What is Reimu Hakurei, the local shrine maiden, going to do about it? Find more info in the extra issue of Bunbu-_

Reimu folded the paper and discarded it. That's why she wasn't particularly fond of Aya's writing: expect an article, get a gossip in text form. Why it hadn't made its way to the front page was even more obvious now.

Still, the red-white didn't abandon the thought of a possible incident. Real or not, it could made her occupied enough to stop moping around in self-pity.

_Then it's settled, _she made a decision. _I'm going to investigate and fulfil my duties, as I am the Hakurei shrine maiden!_

_But tea comes first._

* * *

Misty Lake. As the name suggests, it's surface is virtually enshrouded in mist, making it a fantastic place for the local fairies playing hide-and-seek and a nightmare for travellers who stumble upon it.

Unbeknownst to many, it also made a great spot for popping out of nowhere in a blink of an eye in secret. After a split of second of frantically flapping with her arms in the mid-air, Riina fell straight into the water, nearly drowning in the process. Good for her, it wasn't very deep so she easily made her way to the shore, treading on the lake bottom.

As soon as she reached a dry patch of land, she collapsed face towards the ground. She looked as if she fought with a giant blender.

_I freaking told you so_, spoke the voice. _That woman's aura screamed: "DANGER! DON'T APPROACH WITHOUT NUKES!". But you obviously wouldn't listen!_

'S-shut uuuupp~' wailed Riina through tears. 'I'm heartbroken, can't you see?'

_Your heart's fine, unlike a couple of bones of yours. Honestly, you should start caring a bit more about your current situation! At least try not to attract any more trouble, okay?_

'How could I know she'd get mad all of a sudden? I just wanted to pick a few sunflowers~'

_Don't forget the clothes. She was yelling something about it while shooting bullets in a blind fury. They're probably hers, too. You must have "borrowed" it before your memory loss, it would appear. Don't you think?_

Riina didn't reply.

_Hey, Riina! I mean, me!_

The girl continued to deliberately ignore her rational side. She started a deep thought process instead, unavailable even to the voice in her head.

_Hey, I know it was a big let down for you. This is life. It tends to be this way. You fall in love for the first time, often without giving it a serious thought. You're the happiest person on Earth. Butterflies in your belly and all that. You ignore your loved one's vices and imperfections: the fact that she doesn't acknowledge you, her having no time to spare just for you and nagging you to change the channel to the soap opera she likes while your favourite anime is being aired at the same time. And then, poof! All magic is gone. The one you loved becomes a totally different person. You feel horrible, life no longer has any meaning and it doesn't take much for you to realise that it's all over. But what's important is-_

'Do you think she's noticed me?' Riina asked out of the blue, apparently having ignored all the voice said.

Thank Heavens the voice was the rational, calm and collected part of her psyche.

_Yes,_ it answered, not flustered at all. _I think she did._

* * *

Cirno was in a terrible mood. Her fight with Mokou didn't go exactly as she had planned, with the main difference being the ice fairy's loss instead of flawless victory. Both her and Daiyousei were now on their way back to the lake, both tired and beaten. Daiyousei, who had never wished to take part in the fight, got caught in the crossfire anyway.

They travelled in complete silence: Cirno, too enraged and focused on revenge to think of talking, and Daiyousei, who's given up any attempts to try and cheer her friend up. All they wanted right now was to go home and rest until the moment Cirno comes up with a counter-attack.

The moment they arrived at the Misty Lake they realised something was wrong. A quick investigation helped them find a source of their anxiety: an intruder.

Daiyousei tried to talk her friend into leaving for the time being. 'She looks like a youkai, Cirno. I doubt she has any business here. Let us just wait until she leaves...'

'As if!' Cirno snarled and then called out to the stranger: 'Hey you! WHAT ARE DOING DOING IN MY LAKE?!'

The fairy's boom of a voice startled Riina. She saw Cirno approach her lightning fast, her intention to fight clear as day. If it wasn't for her ragged and harmless appearance, the girl would be terrified.

In this case, she was merely panicking.


	4. S03 - The Idiot Has A New Challenger

**Stage 03 – The Idiot Has A New Challenger**

Riina watched in terror as the fairy was gradually closing distance between the two. To say there was nowhere to run nor hide would be a lie – the space was plentiful and the mist worked like a smoke screen. It's just that she couldn't move an inch, too fascinated with her attacker. She looked puny and delicate, like a snowflake that the thinnest beam of sunlight can melt; and yet the killing intent she gave off was one that could scare away Death itself.

On the other hand, it was hard to refrain from laughter seeing a creature so tiny and so enraged at the same time. That's what Riina's voice thought. Riina herself decided to start running in circles and yelling for help, probably hoping to confuse her enemy. Which she accomplished.

'Stop moving already!' irritated Cirno shouted, puffing her cheeks. 'Or else I'll shoot you!'

'Wouldn't you do that even if she didn't move?' asked Daiyousei who caught up with her friend and was now hiding behind a large rotten tree trunk.

'Oh, just shut it!' the ice fairy snapped at her. 'I'm trying to fight her seriously so don't interfere! Hey you!' she now addressed the winged youkai, pointing her finger at her. 'Do you have any ide- STOP RUNNING, WILL YOU?!'

No reaction on Riina's part, who continued her frantic "go-away!" dance to Cirno's further annoyance. It was beyond her capability to maintain even a facade of coolness on her face. Kind of ironic, especially when you're an ice fairy.

'What the heck's wrong with her?' she burst out to Daiyousei.

Not leaving her cover, the fairy answered: 'I think she's just afraid...'

'Wow, thanks for nothing! Isn't it obvious she would be afraid? I'm the strongest, after all! Everyone trembles before my might!'

'Sure thing, Cirno...' Daiyousei muttered more to herself than her friend.

'You leave me no other choice, you beast!' Cirno exclaimed dramatically, striking a hero's pose and pointing at the youkai with an ice sword created in an instant. 'EAT ICICLES!'

Riina nearly fainted when she saw a barrage of ice bolts flying towards her at neck-breaking speed. She immediately stopped running, although the momentum threw her against the nearest rock which accidentally happened to be the largest and the hardest in the area. Clinging to the stone surface, she prayed that the projectiles don't hit her. And they didn't.

_I've no idea what you're panicking about_, the voice told her. _This child's aim is worse than your social skills. And believe me, it's quite an achievement to beat that!_

'You said it yourself!' Riina shouted back. 'Don't trust strangers, looks can be deceiving and all that!'

_That woman __back in the sunflower field __was on an entirely different level. This one was using __diapers__ not __so __long ago!_

'But she's shooting at me!'

_And keeps on missing. Why don't you at least give her a good scare and shoot some bullets yourself?_

'What kind of advice is that? Do I look like I'm carrying firearms?!'

Cirno's ire grew stronger. None of her ice bullets hit the target yet; she was sure the youkai had some kind of repellent barrier put around her. But the worst of all – the winged creature kept talking to herself, completely ignoring the presence of the two fairies.

_No one ever takes me seriously, _Cirno thought resentfully. Weren't it for the fact that she's an ice fairy, tears would've appeared in her eyes; instead, she shed tiny crystals of ice. Always having to prove her strength to others. Always being made fun of. Always losing. Always being called an idiot. All she wanted was to win against someone really strong just once in her life, so that no one could look down on her ever again.

* * *

Her resolve and her goal to challenge the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo every now and then came into being once the Great Fairy War had ended, the result of which was the utter defeat of not only the mischievous fairy trio who left her house in ruins, but also of the black-white magician. The same one who always helps the shrine maiden solve various incidents. Even Cirno did realise what sort of power these two must possess, being able to beat gods themselves. Yes, in Cirno's eyes Marisa definitely appears as a strong one. But no matter her strength, she's still human. What the ice fairy wanted was a youkai opponent.

She started from the lake. The nearest lair of such mighty creatures was obviously the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Daiyousei, having heard her mad plans, nearly got a fit. She clung to Cirno's legs, begging her not to go. Cirno didn't care much for her pleads and in a few minutes of flight she was standing right in front of the manor's gates. Obviously enough, the gatekeeper was there as well. Obviously enough, she was taking a nap. While this might have been a great opportunity to sneak past the guard and locate a foe much more suitable for her demands (Cirno didn't want anything to do with bosses below Stage 4), it would be also an act of cowardice, typical of a certain thief. So she called out to the guard whose name she doesn't even remember and got beaten in less than the opponent's first spell card duration.

One temporary loss couldn't possibly abate her zeal. She reattempted her raid at the mansion a week later only to be chased away once again, this time by the head maid. No other battle has ever given her so much fear – when she returned home, the maid was already there, waiting. Apparently, a bunch of her silver knives had been stuck in Cirno's ice wings and she kindly asked whether she could have them back. Polite as she might have been, the ice fairy was convinced she had grazed death that day.

Some time later, after Cirno had recovered from the shocking experience, she headed in an entirely different direction – the mountains. Lured by the smell of baked potatoes, she easily got lost in the Youkai Forest where more dangers awaited her, mainly caused by the goddess of misfortune. Having avoided the kappa's attacks somehow (mostly because she could freeze her opponent's water projectiles) she got overwhelmed with curtains of fire shot by the waterfall fairies. Never had she felt more resentment towards her own kind than then.

A few Daiyousei's naggings afterwards Cirno set off for the Human Village. She had heard there was a half-beast living amongst humans. She was reluctant to challenge the hakutaku at first, as Keine didn't quite meet her requirements; her decision was sealed after realising she had had an appearance in the extra stage as well.

(As for why Cirno is familiar with such terms as "Stage" or "Boss", you can go ahead and blame Yukari. Or Rinnosuke. It's not this strange to think that either of these two would be able to smuggle a shmup game into Gensokyo, isn't it?)

After a short search of the place, she found out that Keine was conducting classes in school at the moment. Obviously, Cirno could have simply made an unexpected assault on the classroom but since there there was a high risk of other kids getting hurt she decided to scratch the idea. Even a fairy has rules. She decided to wait until the classes are over instead. However, she couldn't have known how long Keine's working hours on that particular day were. She was waiting... and waiting... and waiting... After around six hours she thought it was about time to give up, especially since the villagers had already formed a queue to ask for free shaved ice.

She tried again on the next day. Instantly beaten.

Then she tried with Udongein. Hypnotised and made return home. Then the Prismrivers. The music was so loud she couldn't focus on dodging bullets. Then Patchouli. Chased away with fire. Then Aya. Didn't even let her get close and shot some pictures. Suwako? Finally avenged all the frogs frozen by the fairy. Alice? Didn't even show up to fight, but sent her dolls instead. Yukari? As for this battle, let's just say it made Cirno scarred for the rest of her life.

She fought Youmu last week and sparred with Mokou just an hour ago. No matter what all of her foes might have thought of her the moment she appeared in front of them and demanded a fight, no matter whether they were fighting her seriously or playing with her – they actually **did** agree to fight. To some extent, she was acknowledged by her opponents. All but one.

* * *

_It would greatly help everyone if you stopped hugging that rock, me._

'It not like I want to, I just can't move!'

_There is nothing to be afraid of, really. Take a deep breath..._

'In case you didn't notice I'm breathing like crazy right now!'

_...shut up, calm down and take one slow deep breath._

Riina closed her eyes and inhaled the air through her nostrils. Simple, yet it seemed to work. Even the noise the annoyed fairy was making was getting less and less intense, letting her mind calm down a little bit. Everything is fine, everything is...

It stopped being fine the moment one of the icicles finally grazed her. There wasn't enough damage to even tear her clothes, yet the panic she felt overcame her.

'Man down! Man down!' she shouted as she fell to the ground, waving her yellow scarf above her head, supposedly as a sign of capitulation. 'Hold your fire, we've got a man down!'

'You can't buy your life this cheap!' a sudden surge of confidence spread throughout Cirno's body, watching with satisfaction as her enemy crawls on the dirt and begs for mercy. That was the moment she's been waiting for all her life. Seeing a youkai squirm was right next to beating a strong youkai on her list. It was all too good to be true.

'There will be no mercy for you! Now, Icicle Fall!'

Cirno's bullets started to follow a more regular pattern once she shouted out the name of the technique. The icicles were shortly suspended in the mid-air after being shot and then fell following a curved path, forming two curtains of ice aimed at Riina.

Petrified with fear at first, the youkai eventually noticed that none of the projectiles hit her. They were colliding with the ground on her left and right but a small area of land were she was lying was like a safety zone. She started to wonder whether the little girl in blue actually wished to attack her. Whatever the case, she thought it was beautiful – all the colours of the rainbow sparkled amongst the innumerable ice shards.

'It's no use, Cirno!' called Daiyousei, having left her cover at last and now keeping behind Cirno's back. 'The battle with Mokou you just had had cost you too much power! An "Easy" spellcard is all you're capable of in this state! Stop shooting!'

'S-stupid!' Cirno said through clenched teeth, screwing up her face as if trying to force her bullets to change trajectory. 'How do you even cancel a spellcard?'

Daiyousei looked slightly puzzled for a split of a second. 'Oh. Right. My bad.'

Riina's voice decided it was high time to act. _Hey, me. Don't you think it is a wonderful opportunity for a counter-attack?_

'I believe I told you I don't have a gun!' Riina spat loudly, making Cirno angrier with every word she uttered. The two fairies might have as well not even been there. 'Let me make myself clear: I am all for gun control! I don't want the world to be like in some stupid video games where people keep shooting each other until they all die and when they run out of bullets they grab a crowbar and start killing zombies! Or the show where there's the guy that actually looks like a girl and he's such a pimp cuz he's doing ballet in a gun game with Master Windu's lightsaber! Or the one where little girls try to kill each other with thousands of bullets that aren't actually bullets but energy balls that make you die in one hit and at the end of the day they all end up drinking and partying! That's just ridiculous!'

_Really? I was sure you wouldn't have anything against guns. That reaction just now, when you raised the flag... Hadn't you been, by any chance, in the army?_

Riina shrugged casually. 'How would I know? My memory's all busted, remember?'

_Right. Anyway, I wasn't talking about firearms. Think about it: all of those who have attacked you so far – the sunflower lady, the woman from the forest last night, and this idiot over there – they are all able to conjure some sort of magic projectiles out of thin air. Don't you think it might be possible for you as well?_

'That'd be awesome...' she said, squinting her eyes even more than usual at the flashes of lights all around her. It seemed that Cirno's special skill was going to last for some time. 'But how do I do that?'

There was a disquieting silence inside Riina's head, as if all her thought processes had immediately decided to F all their work.

_Beats me_, the voice responded at last.

Weren't it for the fact that Daiyousei was a few meters above the lake surface, it could be said she was on the edge of her seat. The suspense was impossible to bear. Cirno's spellcard had still a couple of seconds of duration left and during that time she was extremely vulnerable to enemy attacks. The youkai's lack of action filled her with anxiety, too. She didn't look scared any more – she was now more like a child that sees the snow fall for the very first time in her life.

_Who is she?_, she asked herself. She's never seen anyone like her in the area, save for Yuuka but it's merely a matter of similar clothes. Any other youkai would have seized the opportunity to strike the exact moment the spellcard was used or simply beaten both of them before they could think of even making a move. If she had any strategy in mind, it was chaotic. Did she even want to fight?

At last, Riina fixed her eyes on the ice fairy, giving Daiyousei goosebumps. It was a strong, determined stare, with a tiny twinkle in her eyes clearly saying: "I've got you now". The youkai put both her palms together and frowned, concentrating hard. On what exactly, perhaps even Riina herself could provide no answer.

'She's going to shoot you down, Cirno!' Daiyousei uttered with horror in her voice. 'You have to get out of here, fast!'

'Tch.' Cirno shook her head with a smirk on her face. 'You can't be possibly thinking she's going to accomplish anything by that? I'm the strongest! You hear that?!' she addressed Riina again. 'Go ahead and shoot! Right in the face! Come on, what's wrong with you?! Afraid you're gonna miss? Laaaame!'

'Um, I don't think you're in the position to talk, Cirno...' muttered Daiyousei.

'Shaddap! I'm trying to focus here!' Riina snapped angrily, 'Geez!' she added.

Trying to remain cool, Riina strained to channel her inner energy into her palms. She had no idea whether she actually possessed such but it was worth a try anyway. Her fingertips were trembling so she reckoned it worked, although that might have been due to the fact that it was freezing from all the icicles raining down.

Her hands started to glow like red hot iron. The aura they gave off, a thick red smoke, was being sucked into a single point between them, swirling around like a spiral. It soon created a small fiery orb, like a miniature sun. The more power she put into it, the bigger it grew and the more heat it radiated. It became steaming hot around her in a matter of seconds; even the icicles were melting in the mid-air.

The energy ball was now the size of a fully-grown watermelon and its killing potential could be estimated to be one of a bazooka rocket. More than enough to wipe the fairies off the surface of the lake and possibly knock out Riina herself for a couple of hours.

_Turn the tap off a bit, will you? _The voice in her head sounded a tad concerned. It made Riina uneasy – unless it was really fed up with her about not using her brain often enough, it tended to be void of emotions and monotonous like a text-to-speech program.

It was a signal that things were getting out of control.

Even when Riina didn't want to feed it more power the orb grew larger still. The immense heat turned ice projectiles into vapour and was strong enough to be felt by the fairies, especially Cirno who wasn't very fond of such temperatures.

The ice fairy eventually fainted, thus stopping her spellcard. Daiyousei took the opportunity and carried her friend far away from the line of fire, not even daring to look over her shoulder as they fled. She wouldn't have even seen Riina's silhouette, now that the absurdly large bullet completely hiding her from sight.

_Oh well, _Riina thought. Then the orb exploded.

* * *

As Reimu made her way up the Youkai Mountain, her clothes already torn and covered in kappa blood, a sharp sound pierced both the air and the shrine maiden's eardrums like a thunder. All the fairies that were pouring down danmaku on her head just a while ago were now fleeing in terror, opening a straight path up the waterfall.

Reimu didn't bother with figuring out the cause of the explosion. She had an incident on her hands and she couldn't be bothered with trifles. _It's not like __some__one __has just __evaporated a third of the lake, wrecked hundreds of trees and halved the lake's fairy population, _Reimu reasoned, _Right?_

Having arrived at the tengu's place, she started to look for something resembling a house. While doing that, she wondered whether tengu actually build houses. Being a cross between humans and birds, wouldn't it also be possible that they just built nests on the trees?

The mystery behind the form of housing of the tengu had to wait as Reimu had finally spotted the person she was looking for. Aya Shameimaru, the journalist for Bunbunmaru Newspaper, the latest issue of which was now in Reimu's trash bin. She was about to call out to Aya when it struck her. The tengu was lying unconscious on the ground, signs of heavy combat all over her body. The rocky soil bore innumerable markings and carvings, presumably from a fierce exchange of danmaku. Every now and then you could spot a splash of blood.

'Aya! Hey! Snap out of it already! Aya!' Reimu grabbed her shoulders and shook them, hoping that the girl will wake up. It wasn't much of a help. Aya was out cold, pale and motionless. She wasn't breathing.

Blood drained from Reimu's face and her heart sped up, the pumping noise in her ears was deafening. She gulped as she realised the truth and a mere thought of it was driving her insane.

She had to perform a mouth-to-mouth.

Reimu covered her nose as tiny streams of blood started running out of it. She gave herself a slap on the face that echoed in the mountains and frightened birds. _What are you getting all excited about, you idiot?,_ she chastised herself in thoughts. _She's a girl just like you, right? She needs your help, right? __What's the big idea? __That's right, Reimu, you should calm down first and appr__oa__ch the problem coolly. __Think about it this way:__All you have to do is to press your lips against hers and pump some air into her lungs. It is to save her and i__t's not even a kis__s, so it shouldn't be a problem even if you didn't get your first..._

'I CAN'T!' she boomed with a force capable of waking the dead. Continuously slapping Aya across the face, she repeated "Get up! Get up!" like a mantra, praying to gods that she wouldn't have to resort to using CPR.

Her pleads were listened to at last as the tengu opened her eyes and called the shrine maiden by her name. Aya was so touched to see how relieved Reimu was at her revival it nearly made her cry. She felt she was too weak to do even that, though, and said: 'That's gonna be one of the best scoops of this month. Imagine, Reimu: "Old Hag Takes What She Wants. Beats Up Press Reporter". Wish I had taken enough pics, what a shame...'

'Wait,' Reimu said. '"Old hag?" Who did this to you? Who attacked you?'

'Think,' coughed Aya. It was hard for her to breathe. If she weren't a tengu, she would have been done for; thankfully, a good rest is all she needed to recover. 'How many old hags are there in Gensokyo?'

'My bet is on Yukari.'

Aya gave a nod. It seemed quite obvious, for no other youkai would wreck so much havoc on a whim. It worked nine in ten cases. Either her or aliens.

'So what just happened?' asked Reimu, treating Aya's wounds in the meantime with an ointment. She remembered she had got it from Marisa once but never used it, suspecting it to have been borrowed from Eirin's supplies. 'What sort of business did Yukari have with you? She must have come here for a reason.'

Aya was a bit anxious to reply. 'Um, you know, if I tell you right now then what will be left for my tomorrow's issue?'

'Career or life. Choose.' said Reimu with a nasty grin on her face. A bunch of sealing talismans in her hand made it quite apparent she wasn't joking. She didn't even need these to convince Aya she was dead serious. The Hakurei shrine maiden never jokes. The moment she does, Aya will have a piece of news that will make Bunbunmaru Newspaper's popularity skyrocket.

'All right, all right! I'm talking! So...' Aya cleared her throat and coughed some more. 'It was right after I was done distributing my paper. Something like 2PM. You know, it's not exactly the best time of the day to deliver newspaper but since pretty much everyone was so insomniac last night, I thought they'd like to take a morning nap before...'

'Cut it short. Please.' Reimu asked with a forced, cold smile.

It didn't sound like a request to Aya.

'Right. So when I got back to the mountain, she was already here waiting for me, that Yukari. As you might have expected, she didn't approach me directly to tell what's her business right away but began with courtesy and chit-chat. When we got past that, she said there was something she wanted to ask me. Something about one of my articles. See, usually no one takes any interest in what I do or the news itself so I listened to her. Then she asked about the outsiders.'

Reimu felt as if a huge iceball fell into her stomach. If Yukari has taken interest in it, then the incident might be the real thing after all. _That damn old bag_, she cursed. _Poking into what's not her business __**every. single. time. **_

Worse than the thought of Yukari's interference however, was the one of the outsiders themselves. Who were they and where did they come from this time? Hopefully it couldn't be further than the Moon.

Reimu noticed Aya was staring at her. She must have had a strange expression on her face. 'So what did you tell her?' she asked her to continue.

'Nothing. Think I would give my info to anyone before publishing it first? Not just like that, anyway. I tried to avoid the question but since it's Yukari we're talking about, there was no use. She pressed harder and harder so I told her to piss off. Didn't work, she just said I have bad manners. I fled while she wasn't looking. Again, no use. I may be the fastest in Gensokyo but even my wings can't beat teleportation or whatever gap she's using to get around from place to place. That's when I got really fed up with her and attacked her which was, by the way, my biggest mistake. No, scratch that, it was the second biggest one.'

'Something even worse than being nearly beaten to death?' asked Reimu.

'Yeah, not enough film in my camera.' said Aya, dead serious. 'But anyway, I got my ass whopped in an instant – that hag's crazy, she'd dropped a steamroller on the top of my head! So I told her.'

'I'm all ears.' Reimu said expectingly.

'Some weird structure had appeared in the Forest of Magic – just like that, overnight! Not something anyone can just make happen. Looks ugly, if you ask me, as if built by ten-year-olds with blocks of cobble. Whatever it's supposed to be, none of ours was involved. I had it double-checked while delivering paper: youkai, fairies, gods, oni – all where they should be, not plotting anything. Of course, all except Yukari.'

'And the outsiders?'

'Couldn't get a glimpse of any. Some people claim they've heard them talking but that's about all I got. Sorry.'

'So we have no clear proof whether there actually are any outsiders?'

Aya spread her shaking arms helplessly. 'Afraid we don't.'

Reimu gave an exasperated sigh and got up. She offered the tengu to stay at her shrine until her injuries get better ("Provided you don't eat anything. I'm short on money, you know.") but Aya just shook her head. 'Thanks, but I'll be fine here. And it's not like it can get any worse than this. Yukari may be a violent thug but I've yet to see a murder occur in Gensokyo. This would be worth not only a front page – an entire extra issue too!'

_Provided the reporter's not the victim, _thought Reimu. She said good-bye to Aya as she rose into the air, ready to fly.

'Where are you heading to now? Aya asked.

'The outsiders may or may not exist. It doesn't matter. What does is that I am a shrine maiden and it is my duty to investigate anything that could potentially endanger peace and balance of our realm. If that structure is of this sort, then I'll see that it's dealt with.'

Smirking to Aya, she added. 'And like hell I'm losing to Yukari.'

Aya was awestruck. As if under inspiration, she started coming up with headings for the tomorrow issue's articles.

'"Red-White VS Gap Hag. Bloody Duel Over Pile Of Stone". It will be perfect! As soon as my readers see it they're going to start reading like there's no tomorrow! Hey Reimu! Make sure Yukari doesn't end up with severe injuries, I want to inter view her afterwards! On another thought... Do you want my camera? Maybe you could snap a couple of photos? Just make sure there aren't too many of your danmaku in the way so-'

'I've got a better one.' Reimu interrupted her. Aya didn't like the hollow tone of her voice. '"Tengu Reporter Breaks Arms. Can't Continue Work."

'What are you talking about, Reimu?' Aya asked, giggling nervously. 'Look, my arms are fine, they're not- ... Reimu?'

* * *

Media was torn. Battling in her head were two emotions: fury and shock. She couldn't decide to which one should she give vent: curse Latya for all eternity for being a heartless deviant, or still be amazed at how could what she had said earlier be even possible?

Latya was her sister.

A foster sister, to be precise. She claimed to have been rescued from a bandit raid on her native village by Media's father and adopted. Still, it was the first time Media has heard of her parents ever having other siblings than herself. It hurt, hearing such a secret was hidden from her my her own family. What reasons could they have for it?

And how was it possible, physically speaking? Using this world's time measurement, Latya was at least in her late thirties, judging from the way she looked. That would make the age gap between her and Media above twenty years. That's about the same gap she would consider to be between herself and her parents, making it outright impossible. And on the top of that, Latya had said the bandit attack occurred some one hundred years ago! _Has the world gone mad?!, __s_he yelled internally.

Although, seeing what she's been through so far: her kidnapping, helping Latya in her plans, ending up in a strange world with no way back home; the list of things filling her with shock or surprise shortened every minute. Not even an hour earlier, she had raised a rumpus about a stray fairy that somehow got inside the mansion, nearly obliterating the poor creature with magic in the process. Now, through the gaps in the planks covering the windows she could see whole flocks of them, chasing each other as any normal kids would do.

She wasn't exactly normal to begin with. She was a witch. Like Latya, she could make the powers of the universe bend to her will. Like Latya, she's been taught all magic knowledge she possessed by the same person. Her father.

Nobleman, owner of a pompous mansion, ten nearby villages and a town, Lord von Miener was a powerful and mysterious man, feared and shunned by the commoners. There were all sorts of rumours and legends about him that never ceased to lose popularity in taverns. Some said he was a demon, others claimed him to be the Devil himself. The elders were convinced that von Miener was a vampire, living for whole centuries, knowing ancient magic and hardly ever leaving his manor except at night. The younger generations saw him as some kind of a dark hero, a vengeful spirit that travels from village to village, saving those in distress by cutting down the evildoers. He was both a saint and a cursed one. Both a guardian angel and a hellish fiend.

Father was always very secretive about his past. All the people he's met said he must have come from some foreign land far beyond the seas, given his exotic appearance and outlandish demeanour. Media used to say he had more power than he actually showed; as for why, she has never come up with an answer that didn't sound like another bedtime story for the villagers' kids. But would it be really bizarre to say, given Media's current circumstances, that Lord von Miener was actually an omnipotent, ancient wizard, trying to lead a more or less normal life, helping the poor, sharing his knowledge with a few chosen ones?

A knock on the door burst in on her thoughts. Media felt as if an iron fist clenched around her insides. Lady Latya was inside, redecorating the interior. That could only mean-

'Get the door, Media.' the sorceress called out to her. 'It appears we have a guest.'

Media rushed towards the door, heart pounding as if it wanted to burst out of her chest and repaint the walls. Careful not to trip on her way(her limbs went numb), she let her imagination go wild, trying to guess what sort of monster shows up in the doorway. _On the other hand, would a monster bother with doors and knocking?_, she wondered.

It wasn't a monster, or at least didn't appear so. It was a woman.

'My deepest apologies to have come here unannounced.' she spoke, a small smile painted faintly on her face. 'Forgive me. My impoliteness truly has no... **borders**.'


	5. S04-There Are Never Enough Cliffhangers

**Author's Note: **A slight delay was due to a horrible case of writer block and lack of ideas. Whoever reads this, I sincerely apologise.

Edit: Holy crap! It's been a month since the publication of the story! And it's Cirno Day in 9-10 days! Hooray!

* * *

**Stage 04 – There Are Never Enough Cliffhangers**

Riina had a dream. It should be pretty obvious by now, given the degree of her mental impairment, that is was a freaking weird one.

In this dream she was floating in the air; not flying like a bird with her glorious angel wings but – floating. The sky was incredibly blue and bright, not even one cloud casting shadow on the ground. The sun made her feel warm. It was a nice feeling.

There were two great kingdoms – one above her head, high in the sky, and one miles below her, amongst green plains. The first kingdom was very vast, if not infinite, for Riina had a feeling she could rise and rise and the blue expanse would never end. Here and there she could spot people – **flying **people. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say "floating people", as they were moving through the air in the same manner as the youkai girl. Every now and then some would start performing a truly breathtaking aerobatic display. All the somersaults and barrel rolls were done so swiftly and naturally that you would think in was in their blood. These people were free.

However, Riina couldn't help but notice that the sky kingdom, while enormous, was also disquietingly empty. Nothing but sun and air. Null. Zilch. Nada. She noticed the smiles they had on their faces were somewhat tired, if not forced. As if there was something they were missing.

And then there was the kingdom of the ground. The land it possessed was incomparably smaller in size than the other kingdom, but great nonetheless. It spread from one sea to another, providing the country easy means of transport and opening new trade routes with the overseas. Its eastern borders were guarded by a massive mountain range, ensuring its safety to a degree. With its forests, mines full of ore, salt and coal and fertile fields, there was virtually nothing the mighty country lacked. Except for a wise leader, perhaps.

Riina shivered as she watched the poor suffer, oppressed by the ever-demanding ruler – a heartless, greedy king with an insatiable thirst for wealth and luxuries. He took from those that couldn't give him anything, thus ruining countless lives by famine and disease. All to keep the vault filled with coin.

Just as many hands were being raised towards the heavens each day, begging one or another heavenly lord to help them cope with the nightmare of a life they had and to administer justice to the tyrant, more or less the same number of eyes were observing the earthly goods and lives of common people with boundless curiosity. To the denizens of either of the kingdoms, the grass always was greener on the other side so that one always envied another. What they wouldn't give to switch sides...

Suddenly, a flash of red light filled Riina's eyes and she immediately felt something bad was going to happen. A most horrifying weapon emerged from the light, sending chills down Riina's spine. It was giant sword, but its blade was so bent and twisted it hardly resembled one – if anything, she'd compare it so a sickle, times four the average size. It slashed at the air on its own, without any hand wielding it, emblazing the horizon with the same blood-red colour it appeared from. And the two kingdoms were divided forever.

Her surroundings disappeared all of a sudden. It was cold and empty all around her, a mere pair of eyes in the heart of darkness. Several images popped out of thin air before her, as if strewn on an invisible wall like some pictures. But they were hardly mere pictures – they looked like photographs made for a purpose of creating a war chronicle. Photographs that didn't make it. Why? The answer is quite simple. No army, no nation, no country would ever be proud of the monstrosities the images captured.

Rebels being shot to the back of their heads, soldiers piling their bodies on a heap as one would pile potatoes. Villages burnt to the ground, women raped, men slaughtered en masse. Ground scarlet with blood, plains sown with corpses. Spies and traitors being tortured to death. People being flayed alive. Flesh being rent from the bones. Assassinations. Murders. Mutilation. As the hellish slideshow continued, the images started appearing at smaller and smaller intervals so that Riina couldn't even recognise what's in it. Blood. Gore. Death. Common elements of all of these, easily noticeable without even a second glance.

She heard a weak protracted scream, somewhere in the distance. It seemed to have no source and the faster the images changed, the more strength it gained. The bloody merry-go-round Riina was on continued still. She couldn't see anything at all, everything has become blurry and unclear. The blood-chilling scream didn't stop either. It grew louder and louder every second, making her heart beat faster. The slideshow stopped at last. The shriek didn't.

The image was filled with light, its source in a single point somewhere far, near the horizon. Riina didn't even have time to wonder upon its meaning, when the picture started moving like an animation. The light disappeared. In its place an enormous column of smoke rose high in the air, forming a mushroom-like shape a few moments later. The image was mesmerising – it seemed beautiful, and yet there was something bloodcurdling about it. She couldn't put her finger on it.

The scream was deafening by now. Riina tried to look around, searching for anything that could help her get out of this madness. Except there was nothing in the darkness except her and the image, still showing the moment of the explosion. She looked left, then right (or at least what seemed like left and right) and then back to the image. Except there was no image any more.

There was a person. Clad in black robes and hood, with huge black wings spread widely in all its glory, you could say he/she blended nicely into the scenery. Although Riina couldn't see all of his/her face, she noticed a nasty smile painted on it. In one of his/her hands, there was the sickle-sword, exactly the same as before. It glowed red as the stranger brandished it at Riina. With the flash of crimson light, the black angel's face was fully visible for a split of a second.

She wanted to scream, but it was no use. The deafening scream was her own.

As well as the black angel's face.

* * *

Riina nearly jumped out of the bed she had been lying in as she woke up. Before she could even start sweating, trembling, breathing heavily and weeping at the same time from the shock she's been through, a pair of arms enwrapped her in an embrace. She was confused at first, having no slightest idea where she was or who's the one she's cuddling up to. It didn't matter much though; the floodgates were finally broken and what Riina needed most at the moment was a shoulder to cry her eyes out.

'I- I- I swear I'll n-n-never eat candies before sleep, Mommy~' she sobbed, her voice muffled from having her face pressed against "Mommy's" chest. Unable to make anything out of Riina's words, she just patted her gently on the head, whispering: "There, there".

'It was a horrible dream, Mommy. A nightmare! Like... like when they stop airing your beloved TV series! Or... or when the radio turns on on its own at 3AM and starts playing Justin Bieber! It was horrible!'

'S-sure, honey, whatever you say...'

During next five minutes of awkward silence neither of them let go of each other. Riina's embrace had all the properties of glue and strength of a taipan – you'd need a blowtorch to get out.

'Hey, Mommy...' Riina asked, having noticed something is not okay.

'Yes, um, sweetheart?' Mommy's voice was somewhat familiar. She was sure she had heard it somewhere before. But more importantly:

'Mommy, why are you so flat?'

It soon turned out that the person Riina called "Mommy" was one of the fairies she met at the lake. She introduced herself as Daiyousei. It wasn't an actual name but since she didn't have one and everyone around called her that (Greater Fairy), she grew accustomed to it. Riina thought it ridiculous to use a word "Great" or "Greater" with regard to someone with no body assets, but she didn't say that out loud, surprisingly. It could be due to the fact that the girl had green hair, very similar to the woman's whom she met in the sunflower field near the forest. Besides that, the fairy was very nice to her so far. _And she's cute when she's blushing_, she thought.

Riina looked around the room she was currently in. It couldn't really be called a room, more like an animal shelter built near the house. There were no walls except for one on Riina's left, the structure of which resembled a tree trunk. In fact, it was a tree trunk. It took another while for Riina to realise that the floor wasn't covered with a thick green carpet but actual grass. Were it not for the poorly made roof supported by two crooked sticks that looked as if it were to collapse any second, she might have as well been sleeping in the open.

'When that red orb exploded, I thought it's the end the of the world' Daiyousei decided to fill Riina in on what happened while she was knocked unconscious. 'The heat was too much for Cirno to withstand, so I barely had time to escape with her on my back. We were hurled into the water by the shockwave but the other fairies had it worse. None of them are seriously hurt, as far as I know, but many of them are still so frightened that they've moved deeper into the forest. I can't really blame them – with all the trees snapped like matches and uprooted the whole place looks as though a meteor struck it.

'After I and Cirno got back home safely, I scouted around the lake, searching for survivors. I found none, well, except you.' the fairy scratched the back of her head, deliberately avoiding to look Riina in the eyes. The youkai could barely withhold her nosebleed, relishing to hear Daiyousei stammer. 'I- I c-couldn't just leave you there, lying out cold and wounded, you know. I- I bear no grudge for your attacking us, it was Cirno who assaulted you first after all. S-so I thought I... that I could at the very least treat your wounds and dragged you all the way here.

'The thing is,' Daiyousei returned to being only mildly nervous. She stopped blushing, to Riina's boundless dismay. 'it seems that youkai can't enter fairy homes. We, fairies, being spirits strongly bound with nature, are able to house ourselves inside a tree. We can easily go in and out at ease, and there is really plenty of room, more than you'd have thought. But to anyone else they seem like your plain everyday tree. So I had to move a spare bed out of the attic and try to prepare some rough and ready room for you outside. I've never done anything like this before, so...'

Daiyousei's voice trailed off as she noticed her guest wasn't paying much attention to what she was saying. Instead, her eyes shifted from the bedding to the bed itself and from there to several nails that were sticking out of the holey roof. She repeated the action a couple of times, over and over again, her face expressing a mixture of astonishment and admiration all that time.

'You did all of this by yourself?' she asked finally, still eating her surroundings with her eyes as though the duvet or even the grass were made of pure gold.

'I know it's not much...' the fairy responded anxiously, no doubt scared of Riina. She was a youkai after all, and the memory of the explosion that obliterated a considerable part of the forest nearby was like a fresh wound. Not only that, but she knew youkai are unpredictable in general. What if she decides to fry her on the spot just for fun? '...I'll try harder if you wish me to-'

'...it's the nicest thing I've been ever given...' Riina whispered, only to start weeping buckets, so touched she was by Daiyousei's benevolence. The fairy's attempts to make her stop didn't work at all and it took about half an hour for her to calm down. All that time Daiyousei had to resist being crushed to death by Riina hugging her and trying to land an affectionate smooch on her cheek for being "such a good and selfless girl".

It was then when Daiyousei thought for the first time of the weird, winged youkai whose way of thinking made her head spin as of an overgrown child. Her own child, on the top of that. It was evident that from this moment on the fate of the three: Daiyousei, Riina and Cirno, would be sealed and irreversibly changed. No one would expect, however, that the fate of all Gensokyo (and maybe even the whole world) would depend on the decision to let Riina live amongst the fairies.

* * *

'I sense a disturbance in the fabric of the Omniverse'

It was a sudden sensation, enough to break the man's sleep. As if someone had placed a chunk of ice on his bare stomach. Weird. He hasn't experienced anything like it in centuries. And it happened two times already, all on the same day, within one hour. The first time was a bit different though, with hot coals instead of ice. Nevertheless, both were equally unpleasant.

It's not an easy life, being an immortal sorcerer. You are shunned by normal, non-magical people, blamed for all sorts of disasters, magical or not; but the worst of all? Tedium. And being some sort of a weirdo magnet, attracting demons and other beasts from the very ends of the universe. Hell, he would be grateful if these bastards limited themselves to just one universe. But no, the Architect had to build billions of them, just for the hell of it. So even if there's just one guy that somehow manages to cross the border between neighbouring dimensions and there's no other like him in next one hundred million years, chances are that his 5,867,832 alter egos will come along as well. Accidentally, their eventual destination is always the world our sorcerer dwells in.

The thing is, it doesn't solve the problem of boredom at all. Most of these idiots are often too confused/amazed at their own powers that all it takes is to beat them up, seal their magic away and kick them back where they belong. Hardly a challenge for him, having lived over 1,500 years and having that amount times seven of experience. Although, he had fought a really nasty demigod once, some three hundred years before. He had wrecked an entire village in one sweep, just like a gust of wind ruins card houses. Gathered a lot of followers within a month, creating an army strong enough to overthrow the contemporary king. He had never intended to send his troops against the ruler, but slew him on his own, just to be sure. Yes, it was a tough fight for the sorcerer. Not as tough as ending an ages old bloody conflict between several races one side and anti-mages on the other by killing the ancient warlock-emperor of the latter group, but tough still. It took him exactly 98 seconds.

This time made him feel genuinely anxious. He wondered why: because of a random dimensional rift? Big deal, he's using those everyday to get around. Just hop inside the Void and you can go anywhere, from the most luxurious tavern in town to Hell and back. Just make sure you have 5,000 years worth of knowledge and try not to go insane in a realm with no space nor time, then you'll be a-ok.

Anyhow, he had a bad feeling about this. That and the tea party his daughter had been invited to by some spoiled rich offspring of one of the most influential barons in the country. He wasn't sure why he had agreed to let her go in the first place; perhaps he didn't want to keep her locked like a bird in a golden cage. Let her have some fun, then hear you're the best father ever. Always works. But it doesn't hurt to send a small squad of private soldiers to keep an eye on her either. Should anything happen to her...

The baron's castle was about two days away by carriage; four days have passed so far. Lack of any word from his daughter or the escort group was driving him mad, despite the fact that he realised none of his servants could magically communicate with him. It would be sensible to say he was kind of overprotective, which is something his wife tends to repeat to him every time he employs an assassin to take care of any potential dangers threatening his daughter's life. But his guts told him something was still wrong. He considered impossible: what if these anomalies and his apprehensions are, in some incredible way, connected?

He has never reached the end of this line of reasoning as his wife noticed him being awake.

'What izzit?' she mumbled half-asleep. 'Sumthing happened?'

Still immersed in his thoughts, he asked: 'Do you know whether our daughter is capable of constructing interdimensional tunnels?'

It was dark, so he could only imagine her face when she heard that. It should have been obvious to him that marrying an anti-mage is a risk. Lack of common interests and topics for conversation were just the tip of the iceberg.

She punched him with a pillow, knocking him back on the bed. 'Go to sleep already, damn idiot.'

* * *

'Oh, Madame, you are leaving us already? It is still so early, not even six o'clock. Did you not enjoy the Mistress's and my company?'

'Oh, it was most enjoyable, young miss. I'm afraid, however, that my visit here lasted more than I had intended. If you'll allow me, I shall take my leave.'

'Certainly, Madame. Please avoid straying too far from the path on your way back home. There are most surely hoards of bandits lurking in the forest shadows, only waiting to take Madame's valuables and gods know what else.'

'Bandits? Hohoho~ I have yet to see a bandit survive an ambush on a youkai.'

'...certainly, Madame. Please be careful not to hurt your noble feet on the debris near the entrance. I could have sworn it wasn't there when I looked there just half an hour ago. It absolutely could **not** have been caused by that **mysterious** bedlam in the main hall of **unknown **origin, could it?'

'Absolutely not. Tell your Mistress I'm awaiting her answer and that I would be most delighted were she ever to pay me a visit. Well then, I bid you goodbye, young miss. We will meet again soon.'

Yukari Yakumo, a lady of a noble and polite demeanour (or rather, as Media had noticed, facade) who had paid the newly built mansion an unexpected visit two hours earlier, disappeared right in front of the noblewoman-turned-maid in a blink of an eye.

'Sure thing.' said Media to the air before her, giving a gentle kick to a lump or rubble lying next to her. 'I can't wait.'

Whole building was now smouldering ruins.

The girl went back through the door (or rather what was left of it: two planks held together by a crooked nail, sadly dangling on a single broken hinge), avoiding heaps of stone created by fallen columns and being careful not to step on the glass which covered virtually every single square centimetre of the floor. There was no ceiling: the roof, along with the storey below it had caved in, letting Media see the orange-tinted evening sky in its full splendour and a couple of random fairies hovering above the remnant of the mansion, gaping at the scale of destruction. Quite miraculously, there was only one thing in the main hall that didn't get buried under tons of rubble. The white marble throne.

Latya was sitting on it as usual, seemingly pondering upon something with great intensity, ignoring her surroundings in the same way one eventually stops caring whether his/her room is clean or not, only on a bigger scale, with roof tiles and wooden beams instead of empty beer cans. Media walked up to her, passing by a heap of shavings and splinters – all that was left of Latya's Sunday carpentry. _Serves it right_, thought Media. It looked much comfortable a seat in its current state.

'Milady?' she asked Latya who hasn't taken notice of her presence half a metre in front of her. 'Madame Yakumo has left us.'

'Mhm' Latya nodded, not giving Media even a glance. The girl might as well talk to a wall. But since their mansion had a shortfall of walls, it couldn't be helped.

She didn't give up though. 'She has invited you to see her in her mansion. Also, she expects your answer concerning a topic you two ladies were...' she looked around the hall again. '...**discussing.'**

'Nhm.'

'Before she left she had called you a bitch and said your fashion sense is from centuries ago.'

'Mh... that's not very nice, Media.'

'Oh, finally!' Media shouted, spreading her arms theatrically. 'My Mistress cares after all! Then, would also care to explain what the hell just happened to this place?'

Latya shrugged. 'We were talking.'

'BUILDINGS DON'T EXPLODE BECAUSE OF TALKING!' yelled Media. 'I knew that woman was dangerous since the moment I opened the door but, for gods' sakes!, I've never imagined she would come here to tear the place down!'

'I don't think that was her intention. We... had an argument.'

An argument. Media gave a cold snigger. An argument. She and her father used to have arguments, mostly concerned with her leaving the manor at late hours which was against the rules made by him. All it usually came down to was a lot of mocking one another, crying and stamping their feet (her father was more childish than it may seem), only to make up and kiss at the end of the day. Sure, she was so angry with him at times that she occasionally used spells at him. Not that it did any good; if he only wanted, he could evaporate the hill his mansion was built on with a single finger. There was never an exchange of fire between them. No because of an argument.

'Great!' she sneered, crossing her arms. 'Just great! So? What was it about?'

The answer was silence. Definitely not the one Media wanted to hear. She couldn't beat it any more.

'What the hell are you being so secretive about?! Are your plans so important that you think it's the best solution not to tell me crap? You'd dragged me to your castle by force, expecting me to help you perform your stupid magical experiment without a word of advice saying what the hell I should do! The only reason I had agreed was because I had no other choice. And now you're doing this again! Sure! Let's not fill her in on anything and she will still obey! Well, if that's what you're thinking, you're wrong.'

Media undone her apron and dropped it on the ground at the throne's foot. 'I quit. Have fun, but not with me.'

She turned around and headed for the exit. She wasn't even halfway through when the voice of her mistress reached her:

'Do you honestly believe you stand a chance against one of her kind?'

'I know how to defend myself.' Media answered, with her back turned on Latya. 'I know some magic-'

'You can't even fight a fairy. Oh, be more realistic, girl.' Latya got up at last, stretching her arms so that her joints creaked. 'I don't care one bit whether you like it here or not. Seriously, I don't. And I don't know if you've noticed already, but your presence here is of no use to me. So would you please stop acting like a spoilt lady from a good house that you are and be grateful that I'm providing you shelter and protection. Understood?'

Media's face went red in an instant. Embarrassment soon turned into anger. 'You're the reason I ended up here anyway! I'm supposed to be grateful for that?!'

Latya sighed. 'Okay, maybe not. Think of it as my responsibility then. Either way, you won't make it long without me.'

She walked up to Media and put her hands on the girl's shoulders. 'Stick with me, okay?', she whispered. 'We'll get you out of here. Just trust me and wait a bit more. It's a promise... as your sister.'

Media grimaced in displease. 'Stop saying you're my sister. It's just...ugh. Spoiled the mood, too.'

Her comment made Latya chuckle. 'I take that as "yes".'

'Okay, fine.' the girl said irritably. 'But would it hurt you that much if you at least told me what's on your mind? If you were a character in a fictional story, you wouldn't be any more mysterious or cool because of that. You'd bore the readers to death!'

Latya wagged her finger at her, tutting. 'Breaking the fourth wall is a kind of magic way beyond your league, Media. You'd better not meddle with it.'

The woman then clapped her hands together and muttered something inaudible. Large chunks of rubble quivered before rising in the air. Latya guided each of them back where it belonged, slowly yet gradually rebuilding the mansion bit by bit, as though in reversed time.

'I have a plan' the sorceress said without stopping her spell. 'And I'm going to need your help this time, Media.'

And then she added, grinning widely: 'Let's show the old hag what we've got.'


	6. S9 - There Are 9 Lives In Total

**Author's Notes:**

It's Cirno Day! Hooray! Here, have a frog.

Also, have this (not so) special chapter that I would have done anyway but with extra effort this time. I tried to focus this chapter mainly on Cirno, but I guess it didn't turn out exactly the way I thought it would be. Oh well. Enjoy your 09/09 with 9000+ words worth of my gibberish.

Apparently, LibreOffice doesn't spell-check words written in capital letters. Kind of a shame, to tell the truth. I believed for a moment that such word as "hellfireball" actually exists.

Before I forget, to answer a question asked by Shade Sorcerer: I assume I didn't think of that ;P Yukari, being one of the most aged beings in Gensokyo, has this sort of aura of maturity around her, at least that's the way I see it. I thought it's only natural to have a glance or two at her and think: "Wow, she sure is old". But yeah, it's a too far-fetched explanation. Well then, let us say that Yukari let her age slip somehow during that tea party she had with Latya. Still too far-fetched? Oh well. Feel free to consider this a plot hole then, it wouldn't be the first nor the last one :)

I also need to thank all the reviewers and followers who have supported my work so far. You're amazing, guys! Thanks for feedback and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

**Stage ⑨ – There Are 9 Lives In Total**

'Dammit!' Reimu cursed, throwing a handful of sealing talismans on the ground in anger. Several kedamas came out of the bushes where the projectiles hit, running in panic in all directions. Some fled into the forest, quickly finding new homes by moving into rotten tree logs or invading bird nests. Others weren't so lucky, squished by boulder-sized rubble that just came off one of the walls or the formerly grand mansion, now falling apart.

She couldn't believe her bad luck. To be bested by Yukari again... Just how big a head start must she have had? Knowing Yukari, she takes things slow and easy – just what you'd expect from someone who spends most of her time hibernating in a realm far away from here. Must have been hours before Reimu arrived. She and her inseparable companion.

Marisa came right after her. She tried to land on the ground safely but ended up nearly breaking her neck, having been surrounded by the frightened furballs that had off-balanced her broomstick. Spitting out gravel and dirt, the magician chased the creatures away with a series of danmaku and checked her bones; luckily, none's been broken. She was still feeling pretty bad, though. Despite Alice's treatment full of love and care, the Omni-Melting Potion's after-effects haven't worn out yet. Amongst these were nausea, fever and the funny feeling as though her muscles were made of jelly. She had to lean on her broom lest she tripped again and provided more comic relief for Reimu. The shrine maiden wasn't in the mood for laughing though.

'It's all your fault, Marisa!' she grumbled, pointing with her stick accusingly at the magician. 'If I had headed straight here instead of bothering with waking you up and wiping your bogeys off my face, I might have had a chance to deal with these outsiders first-hand! Do you even know what it feels like to have your job done – a youkai exterminator's job – done by a youkai itself? Humiliating! As if it was some sick joke!'

'I'll have you know, Ms Shrine Maiden,' croaked Marisa, tightening the red scarf around her neck. It hurt just to utter words, but she simply couldn't miss a chance to backtalk to Reimu. 'In case you haven't noticed yet, the youkai in question can move wherever the hell she wants with minimum effort, faster than I can scratch my butt! Is it really this surprising that she's able to outrun any of us when she can use goddamn portals? Howzzat my fault?'

'Oh, because lying in bed with your ass up was very helpful! It took me ten minutes to drag you out of it! Ten! Six another incidents could have happened during that time! And you call yourself a youkai hunter?! You can't beat a stupid cold!'

'First off, it's not a mere stupid cold!' Marisa said somewhat cockily, her arms akimbo. 'For your information, I've drunk a substance able to burn holes in tank armour and somehow got away with it! So maybe you would stop being so bitchy about it, it makes my head ache!'

'Am I supposed to feel sorry for you because of your stupidity? And what have you, drunk acid? So professional, Marisa! So professional!'

'And second off, I'm a freelancer!'

'Try an amateur! Rookie! Noob!'

'Santa Claus!'

'Baba Yaga!'

'Beggar!'

'Thief!'

Marisa still had a bunch of several other witty names up her sleeve but her nose decided it was a perfect moment for sneezing. Reimu smirked nastily over a won quarrel. Her glee didn't last long, though. She was still furious, although not so much with Yukari or Marisa as with herself. It wasn't nice, being a Number Two. She sighed and stared blankly at the tumbling down wall, spreading an aura of gloominess that effectively scared away insects.

Marisa was busy stuffing medicine Alice had given her before leaving. It was a black, tar-like syrup, so thick and sticky that it clogged her throat every time she drank it. Or rather chewed it. It seemed to help.

"Just remember to take it regularly, every eight hours." instructed Alice, then adding: "I don't want you to die on me, okay? It would be a nuisance for me, having to give you a burial." Marisa almost smiled as she recalled her words. Almost, because whatever the syrup was made of must have contained something like 90% tar, or at least that's what it tasted like. 'Hideous stuff' she muttered, trying to reduce contact of the substance with her tongue to minimum and grinding it with her teeth. The only upside to it was that it seemed to work instantly, if temporarily. The first time she had taken it let her forget about all the symptoms for around twenty minutes, after which they returned with grace and delicacy of a charging rhino.

'Care telling what we came for, anyway?' she asked, having finally dealt with the lump of tar, now slowly making its way to her stomach. 'You never explained in the first place.'

Reimu growled irritably. 'I did! It's the hideout of the outsiders! Have you even listened to what I said when I came to your house? Or were you more busy barfing in the bucket?'

'Oh, you're at it again? **You** didn't listen when I told you I was sick! Are all shrine maidens this helpless at solving incidents that when one actually happens the first thing they do is to pull a magician out of her deathbed for help?'

Reimu stifled a burst of laughter. 'Deathbed? I don't think you looked this bad when I saw you. Not after such a tender treatment from your personal nurse, _A-l-i-c-e._' With every letter of the puppeteer's name she spelt Marisa's face was getting redder and redder. The magician tried to utter something in her defence, but found herself at loss for words.

'Okay, smartpants.' she said, having composed herself. 'You keep blaming me for wasting your time and stuff, but tell me this, 'cause you're missing somethin': where the hell have you been for the past two hours? Huh? '

Reimu gave her an ever so slightly puzzled look. 'What do you mean? In what sense?'

'**Physical** sense, girl. Your physical location in the timespan from 3PM till this very moment.' Marisa explained, trying to speak loudly and slowly. 'Clear enough? Didn't you say you met the tengu around that time? I'm asking you, if you were in such a hurry, then why the big-ass delay?'

'Just what are you babbling about? It can't have been even a full hour since I left Aya's mountain, came to the forest and arrived here with you...'

Her voice died out halfway through her throat as she looked at the sky. Sun shouldn't be this close to the horizon. Not at 3PM.

'No... but... HOW?!' Reimu cried in hopelessness. She was on the verge of tearing her hair out, unable to understand how is it even possible to lose 2 hours of life just like that. The answer seemed obvious: _Yukari__. _Of course, it made no sense at all. Yukari's abilities may have been overpowered, but not to the point of manipulating time-space. But it had to be her – yes, no other option. The gap hag had decided to pull a prank on her, a devious scheme devised by Yakumo to make fun of her. Or test her perhaps. Either way, Yukari had a sick sense of humor.

But even if so, she must have had someone to help her, to set the trap for the shrine maiden. But who in the world...

Then it struck her, like a revelation. _The World._

* * *

_Two hours earlier_.

Scarlet Devil Mansion was an indescribable mess. Ever since that explosion at the lake, the grounds and the building itself were being overswarmed by fairies and lesser youkai who apparently thought the SDM to be the best place to take refuge until the panic stops.

Looking at the events happening around the mansion, one could come to a conclusion it's either the end of days or a Hell on Earth. Either way, it was chaos. The gates were spread wide open and the gatekeeper was nowhere to be found (actually, it wouldn't make that much difference if they were closed and guarded). However, if you took a few steps through the gate and looked at the nearest tree, you could notice a Chinese girl dangling from one of its branches on a rope, tied and helpless, acting as a piñata for the mischievous fairies who whacked her to their hearts' content with wooden sticks. The scene was so sad that even Sakuya, the head maid, who spent most of her time lecturing Meiling for being a useless sloth (She'd never use these words, being all elegant and perfect, but she often achieved to make her point with politeness and courtesy. And knives.) and punishing her, couldn't bear the sight. She threw a well-aimed knife and cut the gatekeeper off. She didn't bother untying her, though. Seeing this, the fairies continued to beat her in their usual fashion, punching her face into the ground.

The interior wasn't much better. The library section was sealed off completely by Patchouli herself, waging a private war against the creatures that were throwing the books out of their shelves, organising snowball fights (with books instead of snowballs) and trying to build themselves homes out of magical grimoires. Every now and then one could hear a muffled "boom", each explosion marking another shot down fairy.

The situation was dire even in the ranks of fairy maids. Having become friends with the lake fairies, some of them decided to join the rampage and break as much stuff as possible before caught by the head maid. Which wasn't very long a period of time.

It was problematic, though. The fairies were plentiful, China was no good, Patchouli and Koakuma were busy purging the library, Lady Remilia – although she could most probably take care of the problem in an instant, she wouldn't lift one finger, preferring to drink tea and nag at Sakuya until everything goes back to normal again. Flandre didn't know about the situation at all, having been locked in her room for approximately 500 years; her only concerns included lack of people to play with and low durability of teddy bears that often ended up in shreds when she hugged them. So in the end it was all up to Sakuya.

Such an effort would be well beyond any normal human's capability. But Sakuya Izayoi wasn't anywhere near normal.

She drew a card from a deck she always used to carry with her. Some of these were plain, ordinary cards with numbers, kings and queens on them. She used them for simple magic performances in case her mistress was bored and desperate enough to watch such a show. Also, they added a nice flavour any time she used her teleportation technique; although she couldn't help noticing that actual magicians, like Patchouli for instance, scoffed at such things, treating them as cheap. But the deck consisted mostly of her spellcards, their appearance much more interesting and colourful than aces and clubs. It weren't the pictures that mattered, obviously enough.

The instant she activated the card, "Sakuya's World", the hands of her stopwatch stopped moving. All the unbearable noise caused by the fairy hooligans died out, as though an invisible pane of soundproof glass was placed between her and them. She looked at what seemed a picture or a photograph, with fairies suspended in the mid-air along with a few sets of crockery and cutlery. Their faces frozen in an expression of childish joy, they had no idea that time had been stopped. They couldn't have known that the head maid was walking amongst them right under their noses, completely unnoticed either. Neither could they imagine she would use that opportunity to knock each and every one of them down and throw them inside an empty, unused chamber, no matter whether they have contributed to the overall mayhem or not. Quite paradoxically, Sakuya didn't have time to check that. It was Lady Remilia's job to judge them.

The task seemed easy enough this way and Sakuya expected to get it over with in, well, no time. Still, she could bet all her savings that her mistress is going to grouch about it. See, there's a trick to her powers. While it was easy enough for her to stop time absolutely, on a cosmic scale, so that not a single atom in another galaxy dare move for a short period of time, prolonged use of this ability was extremely draining. And since de-fairying the mansion was going to take her more than 5 seconds or so, she had to make up for it by reducing the scope of the area affected by her powers to just the mansion and its surroundings. Such a time bubble could be sustained by her for hours, if she only wanted to. The only drawback was that time outside the bubble would keep on running, thus making those inside involuntarily "jump" in time. No matter how much do vampires despise daylight and how long their lifespan is, Remilia will come down to Sakuya and nag at her the moment she notices the sun suddenly jerk towards the horizon.

But it couldn't be helped. It's a small price to be paid for ensuring peace and safety for everyone in the SDM. _Besides that_, Sakuya thought while carrying two fairy maids, tucked under her arms, _there's no harm in it, right?_

Little did she know, a certain shrine maiden who was just coming back from her trip to the Youkai Mountain, had decided to pick a route right above the mansion.

* * *

'There, there' said Marisa, patting Reimu on the head. The shrine maiden was crying her eyes out in her shoulder, gasping for air as she tried to speak.

'If only... if only I hadn't checked on the l-lake... I might have been here just in time...'

'You couldn't have known. What's done's done.' the magician patted her a bit harder, wishing she let her go already. Her fever has just remembered to say "Hello!" and she felt as though her head was a boiled egg. Reimu, strangling her like a serpent, didn't help much.

'I thought she was a nice girl! That Sakuya... How could she...' with that, she started to weep even louder. It didn't seem she was going to stop any time soon. Nor did her eyes seem to start going dry. Being in this emotional state, Reimu reminded Marisa of a certain youkai she had met today's early morning. _Maybe they're related?_, she wondered. _They definitely both cry a lot._

'It's a plot, I tell you!' wailed Reimu, grabbing Marisa on her shoulders and shaking her violently. The black-white's face turned from steaming red to green as her head bobbed to and fro. 'Yukari's trying to make me lose my job! She first beats up Aya, then hires Sakuya to help her... Hell, maybe it was her who invited these outsiders in the first place! Yes, that must be it! Does it make sense?'

'It doesn't make any sense, Reimu! Why summon them if the next thing she does is to blow their place up? Get a grip of yourself, damn!'

'But what about my job?! I need to make a living!'

'It's not like you get paid anyway! Now geroff me!' Marisa broke out of Reimu's stone grip, seconds before she threw up in the bushes. What a relief it was, even if only for a minute or so.

When she looked at her again, Reimu had a familiar spark in her reddened from crying eyes. A spark of cold determination. Marisa smirked.

'Perhaps not all is lost. Let us search the place, find whatever we can' said Reimu, forcing her voice to sound enthusiastic a bit too much. 'Maybe Yukari wasn't able to deal with them after all. Maybe she's simply made a huge mess but got her ass kicked in the end...'

'...or maybe,' said a voice from behind her back, 'she got what she came for and walked out in victory.'

The girls jumped at the sudden appearance of the gap youkai. She didn't even try to hide her amusement at their reaction and smiled at them, leaning against her parasol.

' 'Sup, Yukari~n?' Marisa greeted the youkai in her casual manner, receiving only an appreciative nod in return.

Reimu wasn't as eager to exchange pleasantries. 'Don't you "'Sup, Yukari~n" her as if nothing happened! Yukari!' she yelled, pointing her stick at her as if it was a sword. 'You'd better tell me what's going on right now or I swear on my donation box, I will make you writhe in pain!'

'My, my, how rude.' said Yukari, faking an offended tone of voice. 'Why, I only came here to pay a visit to our new neighbours. 'Twas such a lovely tea party.'

'One helluva party.' Marisa commented, her face turned towards the trails of smoke high in the air. Watching the ruins in some kind of awe, she asked: 'Hey, Reimu, do tell: How come **your** house doesn't get busted up this spectacularly when you invite me for tea?'

'It's simple. Because **she** doesn't get invited.' the shrine maiden responded, jerking her head at Yukari.

The gap youkai feigned umbrage yet again. 'Well, it's exactly because of such treatment it is very hard to cooperate with you, Hakurei shrine maiden. Always unwanted and shooed away – I, too, have feelings, you know. Toy with them,' she smiled nastily. 'and I'll toy with you.'

'Enough of your crap, you hag! Marisa! Now!' Reimu commandeered.

The magician looked around frantically for a second, taken off-guard by the imperiosity in the red-white's voice. A while of searching through her pockets later, she pulled out what looked like a cheap pendant of an octagonal shape with a yin-yang orb painted on it: her infamous Mini-Hakkero.

'Awwright, I got this Reimu!' she aimed the now glowing device at Yukari, who didn't move an inch but kept smiling instead. 'Eat this! FINAL... SPAAAARK!'

'Already "Final"?!' yelped Reimu as she jumped to the side to avoid being caught in the beam. The energy laser seemed to evaporate everything in its path; Yukari, who was at point-blank range, couldn't have hoped to get away with this without getting at least mortally injured. Except she did.

Marisa saw it out of the corner of her eye: a huge gap, like a black rip in the fabric of the air, appeared to her right, a wide-open red iris in the centre glaring at her blankly. She could see it fill with all the colours of the rainbow.

'Now that's asshole tactics...' she stammered right before her own spell wiped her and the shrine maiden off the surface of the Earth.

* * *

Living with the fairies wasn't so bad. Sure, her shelter was a bunch of planks put together that provided absolutely no protection from wind, rain or insects that kept getting under her bed sheets, at some nights it was so freezing cold that the sound of her rattling teeth didn't let her fall asleep, and other fairies were repeatedly trying to steal her stuff (not that she had any, besides the bed which wasn't exactly hers to begin with). It may be that they either haven't witnessed the destruction of a considerable part of the lake a few days back or they had no idea Riina was a youkai, a one strong enough to be a hazard to them. Either way, to them Riina was the type of person that you can't help but start bullying the instant you look at her.

But even if she lacked a good, comfortable bedroom, she had a place she could call home now. A small group of fairies and lesser youkai alike approved of her and let her spend time together with them. They have become her friends, even Cirno the ice fairy, who still bore some sort of a grudge against her vanquisher in the last battle.

'Don't you think you've won the fight, okay?' she had said to Riina once she recovered from the explosion. 'It wasn't a fair one! You shot me while I was completely defenceless! So you'd better watch yourself 'cause I want a rematch!'

Having said that, it didn't seem a problem for her to hang out with Riina. She has never mentioned the fight any more, having, as she put it, "stuff" to think about. By the way, it is an otherworldly sight to see Cirno thinking. Whenever she's trying to focus, she screws up her face and grits her teeth, as though the activity induced physical pain. Sweat appears all over her body, her tiny brain heated up so much that she starts to melt. And when she reaches a conclusion at last, it is as if two giant icebergs crashed against each other (that's the way Riina imagined the process). Cirno then jumps and shouts "Eureka!" (having no idea what or who that Yurika was) and rushes to share her revelations with her friends. The moment she starts to speak, she gets so excited that she immediately forgets whatever she's thought of. That's the problem. She might be a genius after all, yet no one realises this.

It's been a week since their fight and, surprisingly, nothing worth notice happened during that time. Even today didn't seem particularly appealing. The sky was hidden behind a thick blanket of clouds and instead of sunbathing you could only count on a shower in the rainfall. Since it poured really hard, Riina got up as soon as she felt the first droplets fall on her face and tried her hardest to upgrade it a bit, in rain and sweat. It soon became quite obvious she was never meant for any handiwork – she actually managed to hit her thumbs with the hammer borrowed from Daiyousei more times than the number of nails she drove in the wooden planks. The final result wasn't a masterpiece either, but at least she didn't have to worry about the rain any more. That is, until the wind got stronger and blew the roof out.

Riina gave an exasperated sigh, threw the hammer on the bed which was getting wetter and wetter with every raindrop and simply stopped caring. She joined her friends, all of them gathered sitting on Daiyousei's tree's strong, outstreched branches. They all looked equally bored and anaemic. Not even the rainwater, constantly dripping from the leaves on their heads, could prevent them from staring hollowly at the surface of the lake, as flat as their busts. She took seat on the southernmost branch and tried some small talk to raise their spirits. After some time though, their negative energy got the best of her and, having nothing better to do, joined the engrossing activity of observing the water in the lake stand still.

The group sighed at once, as though in a chorus. Life sucked hard.

'How about we go and annoy the shrine maiden?' suggested Wriggle, a firefly youkai. A bunch of the bugs were strolling across her face but she didn't take notice.

'No good.' grunted Mystia, the Night Sparrow. Normally she'd find any occasion good enough to sing about it. Not today though. 'I heard she's been recovering from an attack. Keep babbling about rainbows and lasers. Poor girl.'

'Is... that... so...' said Rumia, the Youkai of Darkness, now on the verge of falling asleep. Her voice was absolutely devoid of enthusiasm and her usually wide-spread arms were going limp.

'M-maybe we should freeze the lake?' asked Daiyousei, looking expectingly at Cirno beside her. It seemed she was the only one who hasn't given in to the depressing mood and she did her hardest to stay that way. 'What do you think, Cirno?'

'Won't work.' answered Cirno. 'Tried it once. And other fairies ruined my house while I was at it. So no.'

A sigh again. A thunder rumbled in the distance. Even Daiyousei eventually gave up and slouched, nearly bending in half. It was as though a pack of zombies had taken over the tree.

Riina felt like dying of boredom. And to think she had been complaining about all the bad things that happened to her on her first day in this bizarre land of Gensokyo. She was captured and threatened with death, forced to sleep on the forest floor, shooed away by the witch living there (she hasn't truly forgiven her to this day), nearly killed over a clump of sunflowers and assaulted by the lake fairies right away. Back then, she had wished she could finally have some place to stay, in peace and quiet, not having to worry for her own life. Now she'd give anything for something to happen. Everything sucked. Her friends being unresponsive and not in the mood to talk, she hoped she could at the very least converse with herself, like she usually did. Unfortunately, the voice that guided her through the first day and helped her survive seemed to be gone now, without so much as a goodbye.

Perhaps it had decided it wasn't needed any more since Riina was able to make real friends who could help her more than her own haunted psyche. Whatever the reason, she has never missed it more than today.

She turned her closing-on-their-own eyes at the ice fairy. Although no less bored than her friends, she was different somehow. First off, she didn't care about the lake; while others didn't take their eyes off it, she was carefully observing her own feet. Or so it seemed. The frown on her forehead could be easily taken for irritation, as in spite of being an ice fairy Cirno was quite hot-headed and anything that didn't suit her tastes could make her angry. Seeing what the weather was like, her reaction would be perfectly justifiable. Except it wasn't because of the rain. She was hardly agitated, too. None of the above: Cirno was thinking quite intensively.

'Hey, Sno-ball' Riina addressed the fairy, looking very concerned. She rarely called her friends' by their actual names and preferred to use nicknames. Cirno got hers shortly after she had treated Riina with some shaved ice. Even though it had been exactly as the name suggests – shaved ice, with no flavour whatsoever, still, it's the best thing she's ever had for years.

'Sno-ball, 's something wrong?' she asked again. 'It's unlike you to be this serious so early in the morning.'

'Thinking.' Cirno said tersely, not bothering to raise her eyes.

The other girls exchanged worried looks but silently agreed not to disturb her. Last time they asked her to snap out of it and play, she started hurling icicles at them. Daiyousei, who was like a mother figure to all in the pack, had the most troubled face expression of all. She could tell something was afflicting her friend.

Cirno glanced around her suspiciously all of a sudden, only to notice five pairs of eyes staring right at her.

'What do you want?' she snapped at them, shaking her clenched fists minaciously. 'Why are you looking at me like that? There something on my face?'

'We were just wondering if everything's all right, Cirno...' Daiyousei started but was cut off by Cirno:

'I've had enough of you! I'm going home! I don't need you guys X-raying me!' and having said that, she jumped off the branch she's been sitting on and glided towards a small igloo a couple of trees away.

Daiyousei cried to her to wait up and followed her right away. She came back five minutes later, sobbing and repining at Cirno who said she doesn't want to see any of them for now. There was silence yet again, but Riina couldn't bear it any more. There was a question she meant to ask all this time, namely:

'So what's an X-ray?'

To her disappointment, no one was able to answer that question. Their thoughts were more busy with a matter of greater importance, that is their friend's weird behaviour.

'She's been like this for at least four days.' said Wriggle, apparently annoyed by the situation. 'The instant she said she doesn't want to freeze any frogs I've found in the bulrushes, I knew something's off.'

'And she's not boasting about how strong she is or how many youkai she's already beaten any more.' added Mystia. 'I asked her yesterday who's the next one on her list of people to challenge and whether I could help her prepare by playing danmaku. She gave no response whatsoever and sat in her house all day.'

'Is that so~' mused Rumia in her usual fashion.

'Do you think it might be because of... you know...' said Daiyousei, her eyes still red from crying. She glanced from one face to another, apparently expecting one of them to finish her thought.

'You can't be possibly talking about **it?**'

'You mean... **that** day?'

'Is that so~'

'Guys, I can't keep up with you~!' wailed Riina, having absolutely no idea what they were going on about.

'Oh, I forgot, sorry' said Daiyousei apologetically. 'You're not from here, no wonder you don't know. See...'

All the girls except for Riina became sort of tense and fidgety, as if the fairy was about to reveal a forbidden piece of knowledge that was going to cause them trouble. Whatever it could be, it must have been a kind of taboo, seeing how reluctant to speak Daiyousei has become. Riina was on the edge on her barky seat, getting all nervous and excited at the mere thought of the mysterious revelation.

'Geez, it's not **that** kinda big deal, Dai!' Wriggle finally snapped. 'You make it sound like someone has died!'

'All right, all right...' the fairy's face reddened from both irritation and embarrassment. 'So basically, Riina, it's about Cirno Day-'

'Cirno-what?' Riina cut her short, not believing her own ears. 'Could you repeat?'

'Um, Cirno Day?'

Riina stared at her completely stunned. Cirno Day? Like, a day dedicated entirely to Sno-ball? It is something like Cirno's birthday but with more unclear name? If so, had something terrible happened during one of these Cirno Days so that Sno-ball would react like that?

These and many more questions troubled Riina simultaneously, which was too big a pressure on her poor psyche that she couldn't really ponder upon them for too long. So she didn't. Instead, another question crossed her mind:

'Why don't I get my own day? If Sno-ball can have one, then why not me?'

'You see...' Daiyousei scratched the back of her head. 'It's not something you can be really proud of. After all, the idea behind Cirno Day started off as a joke, if I remember correctly.'

'Yup, with Cirno being an idiot and a ⑨.' added Wriggle. 'And while I completely agree with the first one, I don't get it: why ⑨? Is this humans' idea of humour? Call someone a number-ball and start laughing?'

'I guess that's why Rumia eats them.' said Mystia, nudging Rumia sitting next to her. 'Isn't that right, Rumia? No much use of them, except for food, isn't it?'

'Is that so~'

'I- I was asking you, and you don't know?!'

'_Anyway_,' Daiyousei stressed the word so that all could go back to the main topic. 'Cirno came to like it at first. She used to think of it as birthday, probably. Also, to her it was a sign that her presence in Gensokyo and her strength are acknowledged.' the fairy stifled a giggle. 'I still remember her going from a place to place, giving others frozen frogs as gifts. People were often too confused to say anything, so they simply accepted it without a word. Still, it was only a matter of time before Suwako, that frog goddess, found out. Things got rather nasty afterwards.'

'Don't even remind me.' Wriggle grimaced and her feelers shook as though put in ice-cold water. 'That robot gives me creeps whenever I think of it.'

'I remember. The lake got the worst of it, but I heard Scarlet Devil Mansion also took damage.'

'Is that so~'

'Seeing how it didn't work at all, Cirno returned to what she does best, mainly challenging others to fight her.' Daiyousei continued. 'As you may guess she... didn't win... much... okay, at all. But in spite of this, she never gave up, always ready to stand up and keep going. She... she may have realised back then that she's not the strongest in the world. But even though, her resolve was stronger than diamonds! She believed she could eventually achieve something great if she only tried hard enough! She always looked forward to the next Cirno Day so that she could prove herself in front of others.

'But something has changed. The first signs of her weird behaviour I noticed already a month ago. She'd always mark the day in the calendar with a huge, red circle with the 9th of September inside. And she didn't this time. The closer the date got, the gloomier Cirno became. Even as I watched her battle with other youkai, I couldn't see her feel any joy. No determination, no resolve. As if...' she paused. '...as if she stopped caring any more.'

'Is that s-'

'Darn it, Rumia!' Wriggle snapped yet again. 'If you don't have anything new or relevant to add, then don't say it, for the love of..!'

'It wasn't me, though.' everyone flinched as Rumia spoke. Anything beyond her usual catchphrase sounded odd and unnatural. 'Riina said that.'

Wriggle flushed and muttered an apology. She seemed more concerned with her sudden blurting out than actually feeling sorry, for she crossed her arms and sat for the rest of the conversation this way, not looking at nor talking to Rumia all this time.

The rain had already stopped falling, but the girls were still absorbed in discussing possible and impossible causes of the ice fairy's bad mood. Riina, on the other hand, preferred to tune out and consider the matter on her own. It didn't do any good – without the voice in her head telling her what to do she couldn't come up with a good solution. That said, it doesn't mean her effort was in vain.

She came up with a bad one instead.

'I'll go talk to her!'

* * *

Media wished she had an umbrella.

For three hours she's been wandering aimlessly around the forest and plains in the rain, wearing nothing but her maid suit and a cloak, magically produced by her mistress and given to her. While very durable and stylish, the mantle didn't seem to provide any protection from water or cold. She missed her old, sapphire-coloured dress her mother had once bought her. It was simple yet comfortable to wear, perfect for all sorts of occasions, from a stroll in the marketplace to a tea party with the baron's daughter. Not only that, but it had been imbued with several enchantments put on it by her father himself, several of which she could really use in her current situation, like keeping the wearer warm when it's cold or being waterproof. As far as she remembered, it was also supposed to be nearly indestructible; this property of her dress saved her once, in the dimensional rift thanks to which she ended up here. But apparently a raging youkai was all it takes to deplete such an artifact's magic. She hadn't been able to find it after Latya reconstructed the mansion.

'Umbrella.' she asked beggingly, looking at the grey sky. 'My father's fief for an umbrella.'

Then it struck her. So hard in fact, that she had to hit herself on the head for being so stupid, not having thought of it earlier. She was a sorcerer's daughter and apprentice! Even she could perform simple charms like conjuring fire or creating a magical impenetrable barrier that could do the job of an umbrella just fine. With a little concentration and manipulation of the energy drawn from her own soul the spells were complete. She stopped for a five-minute rest to warm herself by the floating orb of flames and let her clothes dry. The glass-like dome above her head worked perfectly, repelling every single droplet of rain away from her. To her annoyance, she didn't make much use of it, as it stopped raining a minute after casting.

It seemed a miracle she hasn't stumbled upon any intelligent lifeform since she departed (fairies and kedamas don't count). In the world she came from every shadow was a potential hiding place for bandits and murderers, only waiting for an occasion to rob her of valuables or put a knife between her ribs. Here, in Gensokyo, everything was eerily deserted, even though she had a feeling of countless pairs of eyes tracking her every move. Were it not for the fact that one of these youkai monsters came to their mansion on her own, she would think they were in hiding. Which was ridiculous. She didn't think she could possibly pose any threat to the locals. She was in her mid-teens, for crying out loud! Wearing a maid suit! How many young maids are there in the whole universe before whom monsters cower in fear? Media couldn't have known.

She was angry. Hungry and angry. Her mistress has, yet again, sent her on a mission without explaining much and still demanding obedience. Latya has made some progress, though, by giving quite unequivocal instructions to the task. One instruction, to be exact: _find me an army._

_Easier said than done_, Media thought for the twentieth time that day. The only weapon she could rely on were her diplomatic and rhetoric skills, attentively honed in a courtly environment. She had magic too, but she doubted that direct assault was going to help much with her task, especially when the potential enemy had incomparably stronger powers and didn't accidentally set their clothes on fire, like Media just did.

The trees were getting sparser and sparser as she kept moving forward, a signal she's nearing the edge of the forest. She welcomed the thought of a little change of scenery, having spent last hour slogging through the dark woods.

Behind a thin layer of mist was a mirror-like flat surface of the lake.

* * *

'Well, that certainly didn't turn out well.'

'You know what? She reminds me of these... she looks like an angel statue! I'd be perfect if only her arms were spread a bit more, as if flying... Yeah, exactly like this, Rumia!'

'Is that so~'

'What's wrong with you all?!' Daiyousei's shriek pierced the air, making the girls flinch. 'We've got to help her!'

Inside a half-circle they've formed there was a huge block of ice, shaped so irregularly as if it was indeed an attempt to imitate some sort of humanoid with wings. Except it wasn't. Riina was actually trapped inside, expression of shock on her face, her arms trying to cover her face from the insta-freezing attack. It could have been light playing tricks on the girls' eyes, but they thought they saw the youkai move ever so slightly in her ice cage.

Daiyousei was terrified. She could understand Cirno getting angry at Riina who blatantly ignored her wish to have some time alone, but to such an extent? Cirno she knew would never deliberately hurt a friend.

'One thing we know: never let her talk. To nobody.' Wriggle commented, nodding her head sagely.

'Girls, stop standing about talking rubbish and come and help me get her out!' Daiyousei sniffed and her eyes became watery again. 'What's wrong with all of you? First Cirno, now you guys...'

Wriggle's feelers quivered uneasily and she started to spout out broken apologies, seeing as Daiyousei was emotionally breaking down and blindly kicking and punching statue-Riina. In an attempt to ease the tense situation, Mystia began to sing, contributing to the rumpus that could be heard even in the mountains. Rumia was so troubled that, not having a better solution, she spun a veil of darkness around herself so that she didn't have to look.

The hubbub was finally broken with a sharp sound of shattered ice. The shell surrounding Riina abruptly burst into pieces and Riina herself was hurled into the lake, hit by some high velocity object. Whatever it was, it was shot by the ice fairy, leaning against her igloo's wall, her arms crossed. They've never seen her this ired before.

'Would you shut it already?!' she yelled her them, flushing with fury so much they thought she'd melt on the spot. 'All I asked for was some little privacy and quiet! Is it too hard for you to understand?!'

Daiyousei was busy crying her eyes out and recovering unconscious Riina from the water, Mystia's voice got stuck her throat in fear, and Rumia pretended she wasn't there. Wriggle, on the other hand, couldn't bear it any more. Clenching her fists, she snarled at the ice fairy:

'It's no longer even funny, you idiot! I hoped it was just another of your stupid whims when you started acting like this, but it seems I was wrong! Look what you've done!' she thrust her right arm behind her, pointing at the three girls who were now trying to resuscitate the nearly drowned youkai. 'That blockhead was only trying to show she cared about you! WE care about you! And this is how you repay us? Because of some damn date in the calendar?!'

'I've never asked any of you!' Cirno retaliated, still fired up, although her voice was evidently wavering. 'I've never... you... you've no idea! 'Bout nothing! Leave me alone!'

Having said that, she darted back into her house and clogged the entrance with an ice boulder. As if that wasn't clear enough a message, she made several columns of ice shoot out of the ground, forming a thick wall around the igloo and then carved huge capital letters on its glassy surface, which said: KEAP OUT.

_How bothersome_, thought Wriggle, scratching the back of her head. It's been the first time she's found herself in a situation that couldn't be solved with spraying danmaku all over the other side of the conflict. Not that the idea didn't seem enticing to her; hammering Cirno's face deep into a pool of mud was something she had to restrain herself from doing, though. Especially after telling her off in a way that made her somewhat more mature.

Still, not knowing what to do about the ice fairy, her shoulders droopy from helplessness, she reckoned it would be best if she joined others in their efforts to revive Riina who was still lying out cold on the sand. No wonder she looked sort of pale after a free cryotherapy and an intensive course in diving but, according to Wriggle herself, she didn't fare as bad as one could conclude from continuous sobs and wails coming from her rescuers. Daiyousei continued to perform CPR but she was so shaken that she couldn't even do heart massage properly; instead, she ended up half-lying on Riina and virtually kissing her through tears and praying that she comes back to life. Mystia was doing what she does best, namely, singing. The tone of her song was appropriately sad and mournful, matching the gloominess spread by Rumia's darkness, who was staring fixedly at the sand at her feet without a word.

And Riina herself? As far as Wriggle could observe, she was simply having a good sleep.

The group didn't even have time to witness the girl's "miraculous revival" as they noticed someone closing in on them. A stranger in a maid's uniform and a cape.

* * *

'Hello.' Media greeted them, curtseying as beautifully as possible with legs trembling after such a strenuous travel as hers. It occurred to her a while later that she needn't have acted like this – the creatures she has stumbled upon appeared even younger than her.

Four pairs of eyes began boring into her as though at command, all of them equally anxious and confused. Rarely did they get to entertain guests, and definitely not someone of her kind. They were used to humans but not so outlandish and exotic ones as her. _They must be scared of me, just like I am of them_, she thought.

She finally spotted Riina's figure lying at their knees but didn't recognise it at first. 'Has something happened? Do you need help? I can...'

Her voice died out the instant she took a better glance at the youkai. There was no mistaking that obtrusive red necktie worn like a bandana over the shock of blond hair. She let out a high pitched scream and jumped a few feet back.

'You!' she yelled, intuitively raising her hands in defence. Small sizzling ball lightnings appeared in each of her palms, ready to blast the winged monster to pieces in case of an attack. Or, which seemed a more likely scenario, rip her own arms off. Energy magic was supposed to be the strongest of all elemental types she knew, yet she never had enough time to master it. Come to think of it, the was no type of magic she was especially gifted at. _It's exactly like your name says_, Latya told her once. _"Average" would be one of possible translations. __I never thought __our father __could foresee the future to this extent. _Although feeling very bitter after her remarks, Media had to silently agree.

She blew the chance for peaceful negotiations right at the start. The lake dwellers still didn't know what it was all about but assumed a defensive stance nevertheless, trying to appear as formidable as possible with all their might. Which was a tough task: a firefly, a fairy, a sparrow and what seemed like a normal girl weren't exactly an image of a marrow-chilling terror. Media actually found them kind of cute. Attacking any of these kids didn't seem right.

'I don't mean any harm to any of you.' she tried to persuade them, keeping her voice calm. 'I only wanted to talk.'

'What's with that hocus pocus then?' Wriggle said boldly, pointing at the electric sparks jumping between Media's fingers. 'It looks to me you're more like asking for a fight.'

'That... person over there! She's dangerous! She nearly killed me and my, ugh, mistress, once! I wouldn't get this close to her if I were you!'

'What? Riina?' the girls turned their eyes at the youkai, happily napping away.

'I reckon she did blow the lake up.' Wriggle admitted. 'But dangerous? She wouldn't hurt a fly! It's usually her who ends up miserably all the time.'

Media wasn't convinced. Terrible images of what had happened back in the interdimensional space kept haunting the girl in her dreams. Harmless as she may look, there was no doubt that the one they called Riina was a bloodthirsty, heartless killer with no soul-

'Who turned off the suu~un?' a loud, languid complaint could be heard. Riina raised from the ground ponderously, in a manner of an Egyptian mummy. 'Is it night already? Or that you, Shades? Can't see anything~'

'Is that so~' Rumia, who has forgotten to cancel her personal field of darkness because of so much happening within a short timespan, jerked a bit and turned it off.

'Thank you, Sha-OHMYGODWHATISSHEDOINGHERE?!'

'What, you know her?' Mystia asked in surprise, stepping aside as Riina retreated rapidly on all fours, her face even paler than when pulled straight out of the lake.

'Sure I do, Warbles! She was with the one who took me captive in the forest in the dead of night! They tied me up and then threatened to do bad things to me! Very, very bad things!'

Media felt as though the girls' stare was burning holes in her (She also made sure it wasn't her attire that got caught on fire again). She put her hands in front of her in an apologetic gesture, still hoping to turn the tables somehow.

She had forgotten her spell was still in stand-by mode though. Before she knew it, two azure bolts of lightning fired out of her palms, failing to burn Wriggle to crisps only by the skin on her teeth.

After a second of dead silence – though it seemed like eternity – during which both sides tried to understand what just happened, all hell broke lose.

Media was running for her dear life, glancing over her shoulder just in time to avoid being made a sieve by the endless barrage of bullets shot simultaneously by all five girls. The firefly-like one she had narrowly missed was particularly ferocious about it – her attacks had very little openings and it didn't take long until Media's clothes were in shreds. She could feel Wriggle's intent to kill.

Even in the heat of battle she had enough cool to notice something interesting about the patterns of the attacks: though extremely accurate, they were quite predictable. If only she was able to keep moving at her current pace, she could dodge every single one of them and then maybe even shoot the attackers down while she's at it. That was theory.

But in reality...

'BIG-ASS HELLFIREBALL!' Riina summoned forth a gigantic blazing orb and threw it at the unwary sorceress. Media felt funny hot tingling on her back. She didn't even have time to turn around.

'Don't you ever learn?!' Daiyousei tried to outshout the growl of the explosion, hanging tight to Riina's arm lest she got blown away by the shockwave.

'Got kinda carried away. Sowwy, Mommy~'

'Save apologies for later!' Mystia alerted them, pointing at the place of impact. 'Look!'

At the spot where the projectile hit was a perfectly smooth dirt-coloured sphere. After a while it sort of collapsed and the dust that was covering it fell on the ground. Media emerged from the smoke, apparently unharmed, if a tad pale from the shock she's experienced. You don't survive an attack of a strength of a cannonball everyday, after all. Still, the barrier had done its work. She owed Latya a big hug for teaching her that spell.

Taking advantage of a moment of surprise, she struck first. She stuck to the last energy spell she had used – with a little better aim, it might actually work without sending her into a coma. She fried the firefly first – poor thing didn't even see it coming. She wriggled in the mid-air from being electrocuted and then fell to the ground, completely limp and lifeless.

'No! What'd you do to Buzzers?!' Riina cried as if in agony, forming another hellfireball in her hands.

Media was faster than that. With ice-cold precision, she sent another lightning bolt. Not only the youkai got hit; Daiyousei, who was hovering next to Riina, got caught in a chain lightning. Two birds with one stone. And speaking of birds, Mystia was preparing for a counter-attack.

'Rumia! I need your help!' she called out to a blot of darkness hiding behind her back.

'I-is that so~' Rumia's voice came out of it. In a matter of three seconds the sky has become virtually pitch black. Normally it would be beyond Rumia's capabilities to turn day into pure night. Luckily, the clouds were blocking out the sun all day, strengthening her powers in effect.

'Night-Blindness: Song of the Night Sparrow!'

As soon as Mystia shouted out the name of her technique, Media's vision worsened considerably. She tried to squint and rub her eyes over and over again but it was no use. Was that short-sightedness? Nyctalopia? There wasn't much time for her to stand around and wonder. All of a sudden, waves of arrowhead-like crimson bullets emerged from the impenetrable darkness, closing in on her from all sides, leaving openings too small for her to get through. It was too late to dodge them; her not having an ability to fly like her opponents has doomed her.

She panicked. The instant she felt the projectiles graze her she started casting spells randomly in every direction. This piecemeal plan of hers seemed to work, in that with every surge of energy she shot the enemy's bullets dissolved. Of course, she didn't have time to notice that but kept attacking till the last drop of mana in her veins was used up.

There was silence, as though the world itself took a deep breath. The exchange of fire has stopped and so has Rumia's spell. Media couldn't believe her eyes: the gloomy, grey sky was back where it should be, the last two of her attackers were lying motionless next to the other three and she was not dead! Still unsure about the last one, she checked whether she's not missing any vital organs or body parts.

She was fine. More importantly, she's fought single-handedly against five foes at the same time and won. Her! The girl whose greatest achievement at magic was not killing the neighbour's cat with it by accident because she didn't have any neighbours! Drunk with the feeling of her own power, she lost balance and toppled to the ground.

As she was heaving herself up, she took a glance at the creature with angel-like wings. Riina didn't appear to have taken any serious damage besides a few scratches and she was dozing off as if she was simply having her afternoon nap. There was no end to Media's amazement – it was as though Riina and the monster that was trying to kill her were two different beings.

The girl threw her cape aside and began pondering on what she should do from now on.

_S__o I've managed to beat them. __And now what? Drag the five all the way back to Latya's mansion? __She's going to kill me if __I don't find her someone already! It's been a week after all... __Would have been so much easier __if I could just talk them into coming with me __but the winged one had to ruin everything..._

_...__the winged one..._

_...__how about I take just her? __She doesn't seem this scary any more. And such a present would definitely lift Latya's spirits. __Or make her throw a fit. __Oh well._

Media has just finished binding Riina with the same spell Latya had used it the forest back then, when she realised she was being observed. She looked to her side, only to see another fairy staring with a pale face at the bodies of her friends strewn across the sand. Media gulped. The fairy may have been a head shorter than her and didn't look very strong but the girl has been drained out of magical energy which made her unable to fight.

Cirno gave the stranger a meaningful glare. Media already knew what was coming next and began her retreat right before the ice fairy yelled "Ice Cubes: Great Crusher!" and started chasing her around with a giant ice mallet.

It wasn't long before Media tripped over her own feet and fell face down. As she turned around she saw nothing but ice. A huge block of ice was suspended in the air no more than two metres above her head. She could she a distorted image of the fairy behind it, carrying it as though it weighed nothing.

'C-can't we talk about this?' she tried to beg her way out.

Cirno was in no mood for being merciful though. Ignoring her pleads for forgiveness, she took a better grip and pummelled the invader with 15 tons of pure ice. The mallet shattered with a thunder-like clap and sent melon-sized shards flying everywhere. The fairies that have been chased out of the Scarlet Devil Mansion a few days ago fled yet again, for life at the lake was being too stressful and eventful for them to bear.

Cirno looked at the scene she's caused. Somehow, she knew the sorceress was going to get away with this, one way or another. No one has ever died in Gensokyo, for as long as she remembers.

Why is it that every time there is an incident, people and youkai fight one another with all they have but never to kill?, she wondered. And after the problem is solved there is no punishment or imprisonment – everyone cheers and parties, no matter whether they were the winners or losers. Is it because they are afraid to kill? Afraid of losing someone who, despite causing a lot of trouble, is one of your dearest friends nevertheless?

Or is the reason somewhere else? Maybe it has to do with proving one's strength? When you think of it, can you really call yourself the strongest one when you've finished off other people who are a threat to you losing your position? Perhaps you should leave them be, let them get stronger on their own and then challenge one another to see who's better.

Even if that was the right answer, it still didn't cover half of the mysteries Cirno was pondering upon so hard during the last few weeks. The meaning of strength. The meaning of existence. The meaning of friendship. And many others, left still unanswered.

But Cirno didn't care any more. Not for now, at least. Fighting for her friends didn't demand any answer.

Looking at the heap of shattered ice for the last time before coming to see whether the others are okay, she smirked and said:

'Happy Cirno Day, sucker.'


	7. S06 - Did You Expect A Last Boss?

**Author's Note**: I took waaaay more time than I should on that one. Please slap me across the face if you think I've gone too lazy on this chapter, because I feel that's the way it is. ._.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy.

Again, to resolve one issue pointed out by Shade Sorcerer: I am not a hardcore Touhou fan, and while I love the series I admit that I don't know everything about it :) That's why I often compare what I think I know with what I believe to be reliable info on the Internet. Quoting Touhou Wikia: _Rumia is a youkai that can manipulate the darkness, but judging from her Embodiment of Scarlet Devil appearance, __she is only powerful enough to make it seem like late evening__._

If I had made a mistake about her powers, sorry, my bad. Will do more thorough research next time :D And again, thanks for the review!

* * *

**Stage 06 – Did You Expect A Last Boss?**

A sunny day has come at last, breaking a week-long streak of storms and endless rain. All creatures of Gensokyo – humans and youkai alike – seemed to have finally awoken from a week-long slumber and came back to life with the very first ray of sunlight that made it through the clouds. Even poor fairies, too afraid to come back anywhere near the lake, found this change of weather invigorating; one could see whole flocks of them gliding through the skies, as though without a single care in the world. The air filled with their laughter, they refrained from playing danmaku for the time being; loud, sharp noises, like those of bullets or even sneezing, were enough to nearly give some a heart attack.

It was a perfect day to ride a broom. Marisa must have thought so, standing on her house's doorstep with the broomstick in hand, basking in whatever sun was let through the tree tops. She had to agree that it didn't quite fit the image people have about witches – mostly ugly, old creatures with more warts on their faces than hairs on their small, wrinkled, dried out heads. They would travel at night, preferably having full moon in the background and, what goes without saying, laughing most hideously on their way, giving those who ever spot them a sudden urge to run away as fast as possible in the opposite direction and chilling all living beings in a 2km radius to the marrow. They also have the weirdest tea parties ever, with potions made of rat's tails, spider's eyes, bat's wings, etc. instead of tea, and casting curses and summoning demons as a replacement for cookies. With that sort of reputation and infamy going on, Marisa just had to stand up to it. She loved cookies.

Not bearing to wait any more, she mounted her broom and took off. It was an indescribable feeling – gliding through the air at high velocity, rising higher and higher, over the greenness of the woods, having fairies get out of your way with shrieks of fear... She didn't need more reasons to continue being a magician.

Oh, how she had missed it during a whole week of convalescence. Getting hit by one of your most powerful spells at point-blank had to leave a mark. Luckily, even multiple bone fractures and 3rd degree burns were no match for the medicine Eirin had been so kind to give both her and Reimu, having heard about their frail condition. That and Alice's frequent visits to check whether "she kicked the bucket yet". Marisa knew too well the puppeteer never meant what she said. Just a memory of how shaken she had looked when she saw the magician right after the confrontation with Yukari made Marisa hug her broomstick with affection.

She was already above the edge of the forest when she noticed three or four fairies flying alongside her, whispering and giggling all the time, presumably about her. She flushed at once and chased them away with some weak but flashy bullets, only to scare them, not to do harm. _Just what am I doing?_, thought Marisa. If she were to believe the newspaper (and she often had a hard time trying), Reimu does this sort of thing quite often when she's all alone and no one's watching. No one except tengu reporters, it seems.

This and the fact that the shrine maiden had been injured nearly as badly as Marisa and was now recovering, staying all day at her shrine and drinking tea (which, when you think of it, isn't that different from her usual every day activities), were only two reasons to pay her a visit. Marisa was getting bored as well, sitting and doing nothing but teasing Alice. Her company, although quite enjoyable, wasn't anywhere as fun as having Reimu around. She missed annoying the hell out of her.

The trip to the shrine was short yet rough, all thanks to Marisa's broom. Her favourite mean of transport has, too, got a taste of the blast from her Final Spark and, as a result, its condition has become somewhat worn out. That is, if being a sad pile of splinters and twigs falls into a definition of "worn out". There being nothing impossible for a magician, Marisa has got her broom to work in no time with a couple of spells and metres of Sellotape. The problem was, it was making a strange whirring sound during flight and vibrated at each turn as though it was about to combust and explode. She had nearly fallen off it three times, too. She desperately needed to get a new one from Kourindou. No matter whether magical or not, nor whether she should buy it or steal it. All she wanted was a broom the stick of which consisted of less than a thousand tiny elements and that didn't threaten to stop working in the mid-air.

The shrine was a mess. With no one to do all the necessary chores for a whole week, the place looked incredibly run down. Leaves were gathering on the footpath en masse, adding to an already impressive heap in the middle of it. Marisa reckoned Reimu is going to hate this. Although, it may make her work a little more exciting. That is, if "excitement" is the word you want to use together with sweeping.

Having pulled off her shoes, Marisa walked through the doorstep. Reimu must have noticed her faster than she could announce her arrival because a feeble voice was heard from behind a paper wall:

'Who's there? The shrine is temporarily closed. No ceremonies or exorcisms at the time being. If you wish to donate, though, feel free to do so.'

Then, in a barely audible murmur, she added:

'If the box is still there, that is.'

'Yo, Reimu~n! It's me, your best buddy!' said Marisa, sliding the shoji open without further ado. 'Came to check up on ya. Doin' well?'

Reimu didn't need to answer but heaved a sigh. She was sort of pale on the face and had bags under her eyes. From underneath her red flower-patterned sleeping garment bandages tightly wrapped around her body were showing. As far as she knew, Reimu might have got the worst of the attack. She didn't know the details but the shrine maiden was supposed to have opened her eyes just two days earlier, according to Alice who had dropped by the shrine at Marisa's request.

_How odd_, the girl thought. To her, Reimu has always seemed to be made of stronger stuff. Always bossy, always harsh and brutal – the Hakurei shrine maiden, Bane of Gensokyo and Merciless Youkai Buster, etc, etc. The one by whose hand vampires, spectres, immortals, demons and so on fell miserably, has been lying in bed for a week! So fragile! So delicate! So – Marisa couldn't help noticing – cute. There was something alluring about her, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Maybe it was just due to the fact that she finally got to see her in something different than her usual shrine maiden clothes? Or has her innocent, weak appearance worked its charms on her?

Either way, Marisa must have started blushing, as Reimu asked:

'What's wrong? Do you have a fever or something?'

Marisa, looking very abashed, waved her hand dismissively. 'Oh, um, yeah, it's, uh, nothing, really. Er, yeah. It's not even the worst thing I've been through this week, I mean! So, uh, I decided to... t-to see you and... yeah.' she tried to sound as casually as possible and sort of failed. Reimu didn't seem to have taken notice, luckily.

'I see.' she said with a small smile. 'You're not my first visitor, though. Alice came up here some time ago. Was it you who...?'

'I-I-I...' Marisa stuttered due to the immense stress. Unable to utter anything, she assumed Alice's approach. 'I... just... didn't want you to die or anything.'

To the black-white's astonishment, Reimu gave her a warm, sincere smile.

'I've got to thank you properly then.' she said with a soft voice that made Marisa's limbs go limp. 'I mean it. Thank you, Marisa. I appreciate your concern.'

The magician's heart was racing. The damage must have been far worse than she could have imagined. The things Reimu was talking about... That's completely out of her character!

Her head was dizzy. Her friend never used to act this cute. What should she do? What should she...

'Now.' Reimu's voice returned to her usual, matter-of-factly tone and she wasn't smiling any more. Marisa, whose mind had been on the cloud nine just a second ago, had an abrupt, headlong trip back to earth. 'Don't you ever expect me to say that again. I only wanted you to know I'm grateful and all that.'

'Sure thing, Reimu' Marisa let out a sigh. It was actually a sigh of relief. While she definitely wouldn't mind being sweet-talked by her a little bit longer, deep inside she wouldn't want their relations to become unnecessarily complicated. 'So how're you doing?' she asked more relaxedly, having regained her composure.

'As though I had been buried alive and got undug five days later. I would really appreciate it if you didn't make me go into details. And I guess you've been through a little hell of your own, so no point in telling- Would you pass me the tea?'

Marisa handed her a steaming cupful of the hot drink. 'I hope your diet for these last few days wasn't just tea?'

For some reason, Reimu frowned and grimaced, looking quite displeased.

'No,' she groaned agonally-like. 'You see, Alice wasn't my first visitor either. A certain hag has been taking care of me while I was out cold.'

'Yukari? For real?' Marisa's jaw dropped to the floor as Reimu confirmed by a short nod. She found it ridiculous that the same person who had nearly killed both of them would go to such lengths to act as a personal nurse. Ridiculous but not improbable. Yukari had a knack for ridiculous.

'Of course, I realised only after I woke up.' Reimu shivered. 'Gives me creeps when I think about it, actually. Changing my bandages, washing me, hell, maybe even watching me sleep. The first thing I'm going to do when I'm not confined to this bed any more is to take a hot bath. With sanitiser instead of water.'

'I feel you, girl' Marisa nodded sagely, pouring herself some tea. 'What about some more distant future plans?'

'Simple. Rip Yukari's head off and throw it into a burning pit.' Reimu spoke as though she was discussing weather. Her casual tone turned into a wail. 'I mean, I wish I could do that, but I can't!'

'And why izzat? Listen, there's plenty of girls in the area with whom Yukari has some bad blood going on and I'm 100% sure she would help us gang on her. Oh, that's right,' Marisa clapped once with excitement, remembering something. 'Sanae used to have a big-ass robot! Wonder if it's still working-'

'Like hell I'll accept Moriya's help!' Reimu snapped, spilling her tea all over her bed sheets. She ignored it and continued ranting instead:

'And it's not the issue! I'd have her dealt with if I only wanted to! She... she had left a note before she left. One in which she says quite clearly I am not to engage in the incident in any way and under no circumstances unless instructed otherwise. Or else.'

Marisa stared at her in disbelief, almost dropping her own cup to the floor.

'What the hell, Reimu?!' she boomed at once, waving her arms in agitation. 'Since when are you taking orders from that old bag?!'

'Since I thought I don't want to be put in a coma for another week! Listen! Do you really think I like having at least three outsiders on the loose in this realm, doing as they please? If it depended on me, I'd have had the whole matter wrapped up in a few hours since our arrival at their lair. But since Her Majesty Yukari can't survive a month without a bringing one disaster after another right onto my head, my hands are tied! She's a goddamn leech, living off my misery and making my life as full of crap as possible!

'What was she even thinking, that stupid- Urrgh! First thing she does is to beat up Aya to get their location, then she's having a- yes, a tea party! TEA PARTY! - with the intruders, then she beats the crap out of them and wrecks their mansion, then she wipes the floor with us (although it wouldn't have been this bad if not for your Final Spark, Marisa...)'

Marisa shrugged. 'You asked me yourself, remember? "Should she make problems, make her puke rainbows", or sumfin.'

'And now, she's telling us not to interfere! Even though she fought them herself! What the hell?! What do you make of this? Because, you know, I'm clueless! And, damn...' Reimu's eyes became bleary and she looked as though she was about to faint. She put her hand to her forehead and rubbed it, supporting herself with the other arm. 'I'm too weak to even be angry at her. Marisa? What's your take on all this?'

Marisa scratched her chin, thinking intensively. Yukari's actions made no sense; the whole case was just too bizarre. It wasn't strange for her to sit comfortably somewhere with a good view and watch a problem between both sides of a conflict escalate; nor was adding more fuel to the fire. But to turn against the troublemakers AND the problem-solvers? Marisa had no clue what to do.

Wanting to break the awkward silence, she said the first thing that had come to her mind:

'I think you should wear your hair loose. Looks really good on you.'

* * *

Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Just as the name suggests, it doesn't take much effort to lose your way once inside. Wherever you look, it's all the same: flat, grassy surface and bamboos so tall you can't see where they end. Try taking a few steps in any direction. Look around. Then walk some more. Look around again. Walk a hundred metres. Notice anything peculiar? If you do, pat yourself on the back, you've either:

a) found an exit from the endless maze of bamboos and are now free to head back to the Human Village or wherever you've come from;

b) stumbled upon a white-haired firestarter who will kindly show you the way out, provided she's not busy planning another murder on her arch-nemesis;

c) met a rabbit who, with enough luck, doesn't turn out to be Eientei's number one prankster and doesn't trick you into walking right into her trap;

d) spotted some craters and patches of scorched earth, commemorating a fierce battle between an ice fairy and the previously mentioned fire youkai that had taken place here a week ago – you can use them as a point of reference to make your attempts to escape slightly easier;

e) fallen into a 10-metre-deep hole in the ground and now have no means of getting out.

Was the last option not so positive? Hey, at least you don't have to be worried about getting lost any more! Try to see the bright side: your only problem right now is not to die of starvation or dehydration so you'd better start praying to whoever you can that someone finds you and gets you out. Then you can start worrying again.

Reisen had all rights to be worried. After all, it was the first time she actually let Tewi get the best of her and didn't notice one of the most obvious traps she's ever seen, namely a 2-metre wide pit "hidden" beneath a pile of cut bamboos. She refused to believe it even in her current situation. She can't have simply waltzed right onto the trap without noticing it first; she did that on purpose, _obviously_, so that those who get lost won't fall for it. _Of course_. It does sound sensible, doesn't it? After repeating these words several times like a mantra, she has eventually convinced herself.

Getting out of the pit wasn't much of a problem. All the moon rabbit had to do was to punch a bunch of holes in the dirt all the way up with her bullets, so that she could use them to climb up. While she was at it, another thought was haunting her.

It was the first time she actually got lost.

Reisen Udongein Inaba, out of all creatures residing in the forest or its vicinity, was probably the most suited one to get around, given her unique ability to control and manipulate wavelengths, lightwaves included. While crushing her opponents with illusion and deception, driving them mad and filling their heads with unimaginable horrors, she had never fell prey to similar tricks. She could be the last sane rabbit in an insane world.

Her heightened senses told her something was off. Getting back to Eientei should be a walk in the park (she was normally able to hear Eirin's or Kaguya's voices even from from the outer rims of the forest). And yet... She couldn't hear anything at all. As though something way powerful than her was creating an interference, rendering her perception useless.

_But just what on __Moon__ would that be?_, she wondered, making her way to the top of the hole. _In Gensokyo, the only possible source of such power would be magic-_

The instant her eyes were on the same level as the forest floor, she noticed a pair of feet standing right in front of her. Reisen looked up very slowly, forgetting to breathe. Just as she feared, she didn't recognise the woman clad in a black dress at all. One thing she was quite sure of though, was that the nasty smile painted on the stranger's face wasn't boding well.

The woman cackled. 'I was hoping to hunt some big game this afternoon, and all I get is a rabbit? Oh well, you know what they say...' she paused, as if she lost the thread of what she was saying. 'Uh... Actually, do you happen to remember what people say in such situation?'

Unable to produce a sound, Reisen merely shook her head.

'Me neither. Now, in you go.' she said, ushering the rabbit into a potato bag.

* * *

'I really don't think it's the right way to find yourself followers.' Media said at the arrival of her mistress in the girl's private chambers.

Media's room was located on the top floor of their newly-rebuilt, three storey mansion. The chamber being the easternmost part of the building, Media had her curtains drawn open so as to let a bit of an afternoon sun inside. It looked nearly identical to the one she lived in before half of the mansion collapsed, in that there was very little of _everything_ – the total number of the pieces of furniture she had could be counted using only your fingers. When compared with the abnormally big size of the room, they seemed like toy accessories one puts in a doll house.

Given the circumstances, Media still had more she could have imagined. Unlike the grey mass of stone and brick their old mansion used to be, Album Solium (or Byakuzasho, as Latya had started to call it) was a building so impressive that no king or ruler would be ashamed to have it as their palace. It's name derived from Latya's beloved white marble throne, it was completely white from the outside, so much that it hurt one's eyes to even look at it during daytime. Columns were everywhere, at least one per every ten square metres. The walls, both inside and outside were covered in carvings of various types: from magical formulas in foreign languages, through elaborate mandalas, fractals and flower motifs, to detailed frescoes, supposedly depicting Latya's own past and experiences. The craftsmanship of hers made up for the feeling of emptiness due to the lack of paintings and other items of this sort one would expect to find in a house of the nobles. In free time, the sorceress made attempts at sculpting.

Latya was a true miracle-maker in making something out of nothing. Normally, a magician makes use of his/her ability to manipulate their inner energies in order to control the material world around them; Latya could not make objects appear out of thin air with a mere clap, but rather construct them herself with magic, step by step, operating on particle level. That being the case, Media could not explain the fact that her wardrobe was full of clothes in no time. Their texture seemed so natural it was outright impossible for a magician to weave them. True, all of them maid's uniforms (Media suspected her mistress to have stolen them), which spoilt her mood each time she looked at them, but it nevertheless made the girl feel, to some extent, that she is somewhere she could call, if not home, then at least a safe shelter.

When Latya entered the room, a big bag with something alive inside it floating in the air alongside her, Media was still in bed, recovering from yesterday's fight at the lake. She didn't look half as miserable she expected herself to be, especially after being smitten with a miniature glacier; it was only a couple of scratches. Media reckoned she must have subconsciously used the very last bit of her magical powers to reduce the damage taken so that an arduous return to the mansion on her own was possible. As expected, Latya was both shaken and furious at Media's failure to fulfil the mission of finding reinforcements _and_ the unsuccessful capture of Riina, but that came after the sorceress had cried her eyes out about how the girl could have died back there. She might have been the worst big sister ever but her heart was in the right place.

'You can't just go and kidnap people like that!' Media chewed out Latya, who smirked and started undoing the bag.

'You're telling me off for something you had tried to do yourself? And failed, need I remind you? Besides, she's not a human. And you haven't even seen her yet!'

'_Her?_' said Media, a tint of disappointment in her voice. 'A girl? Again?'

Latya rolled her eyes and made a tired face. 'For God's sake, Media! I thought you had noticed that already! There are virtually no men here! I mean, there are, obviously, like the shopkeeper or half the population of the village nearby. But it's the girls I'm really interested in!'

Media grimaced. That sounded just awfully wrong, coming out from Latya's mouth. Just thinking about it gave her goosebumps.

'Before you say anything,' Latya said, having noticed the girl's reaction. 'what I meant was that only women of this realm, possessing supernatural abilities nearly equal in power with our magic, are relevant to our cause and my plan. I won't have any use of some lazy git who's unable to do what I asked for. You hear me, Media?' she asked the girl, mockery evident in her voice.

Media grunted something inaudible. So much the sisterly facade. It didn't seem like the sorceress was going to forget her defeat any time soon.

'Anyway, you're going to love this!' Latya continued. 'Ever seen a magic show?'

Then, as though the tattered potato bag was an ugly, oversized top hat, Latya put her arm shoulder-deep into it and, after about four seconds of searching, pulled Reisen out, holding her in the air by her long ears. The rabbit girl wriggled and kicked but couldn't make the sorceress let her go.

'_Ta da~__' _said Latya, spreading her arms wide and bowing. 'So, what do you think? Cute, isn't she?'

She definitely was. Cute enough to make Media forget to pass a scathing remark about how cheap she believed such magic performances to be. She couldn't stop marvelling at her fluffy ears and tail and could barely wait to pet her.

One look at her blood-red eyes, though, made her realise all of a sudden that she might not be as harmless as it seems. She remembered the girls at the lake and the beating she had got from them. Should she ever approach the rabbit youkai, she'd have to make sure first she doesn't rip her head off when startled.

'Settled then, isn't it?' said Latya and dropped Reisen on the ground without a word of pardon. 'Think of a name for her, would you? Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to-'

'NOW J-JUST WAIT A MINUTE!' Reisen snapped at last. 'Just what's _settled_? Who the hell are you people and what do you want from me?!'

'Oh, right.' admitted Latya. 'I need someone to protect the house _and _this useless oaf over there' she pointed at Media who puffed her cheeks in annoyance. 'while I'm away, busy or both. See, it's been a week like this – no security at all! How can I get anything done, having to care about everything? So, I suggest you start with taking care of-'

'I already have someone to take care of!' Reisen cut in. 'She can't survive a day on her own!'

Latya put on a serious face and wagged her finger at the rabbit disapprovingly.

'I'd appreciate it if you didn't interrupt while I'm speaking. Honestly, don't rabbits these days have any manners?'

'Do you even get what I'm saying? I. Serve. Someone. Else.' Reisen stressed each word, her teeth clenched, trying not to go postal. 'I serve someone else! And she's a princess!'

Latya gave a dismissive wave of hand. 'To Hell with her. That lady on the bed is your princess now. And here,' she curtseyed ever so slightly. 'is your Queen. Now, why don't you get straight to work, Fluffy?'

With these words, the sorceress headed for the exit, leaving Reisen utterly confused. More than the absurd situation she has found herself in, she couldn't stand the awful nickname. Even Media was baffled and outraged at the same time at the insolence of her mistress's actions. She wasn't surprised at all, though. She got used to it.

'I think it will be for the best of us both if you play along, at least for the time being.' she said to the moon rabbit, who was still standing there completely stunned and stupefied. 'She obsessively rapacious.'

Then Reisen did something Media should have expected from the very start. Namely, she turned her huge red eyes at her and stared deeply into her own. Before she knew it, she felt dizzy all of a sudden and fell back on the bed, immersed in a deep sleep.

'No hard feelings, _Princess_.' Reisen said apologetically. 'But a certain NEET needs to be reminded to eat 3 meals a day. Were it not for me, she'd keep playing games all day long.'

* * *

'I'm so bored I'm gonna dieeee~' Riina wailed and fell face down on a table she and her five friends were sitting at.

The others sighed in agreement. It was their seventh attempt at thinking of something good to kill time. A card game. Daiyousei was the one to come up with that and everyone clapped with enthusiasm the instant their eyes saw a brand-new deck of cards, straight from Kourindou. She was probably the only fairy to actually buy things with money she had somehow managed to scrape up ever known; others of her kind would most probably assume a truly Marisian approach and snatch it when no one's looking.

Not even a minute had passed before they set up a table with six chairs outside the fairy's house and sat, all eager to play. Hype and excitement disappeared like a punctured balloon when it became clear that Daiyousei and Wriggle were the only ones to get the rules, no matter how ridiculously simple they were ("_Hand_? What do you mean _hand_?"). Even hide-and-seek had been slightly better. Still, trying to spot a large blot of darkness in broad daylight or a pair of enormous angel wings wasn't exactly their idea of challenge. Or fun.

Cirno, on the other hand, was brimming with energy. Ever since she's punished Media for attacking her friends, she's been literally beaming. She also returned to her habit of boasting about her infinite strength and has already planned to challenge five youkai next week. Everyone was glad that the ice fairy hasn't given in to depression, but at the moment they'd be more happy to give anything for a fraction of her enthusiasm.

'What's wrong with you, guys?' Cirno commented on their sullen faces. 'Look, it's a great day! Doesn't it make you feel like punching someone? That's right! Why don't we go and fight some youkai?'

'I don't know,' muttered Mystia, who was playing absent-mindedly with feathers on her hat. 'I still can't feel my wings after yesterday. You know, when that girl shot lightnings at us.'

'Yeah, wasn't that a _shocking_ experience?' said Wriggle in a desperate attempt to make the others laugh. Not surprisingly, she got no reaction at all. Even Rumia wasn't in the mood for her catchphrase.

Cirno wasn't going to tolerate this sort of negative vibes. Having jumped on the top of the table, she put her arms akimbo and exclaimed out loud:

'I think I know just the thing you guys need!' Then, pointing her finger dramatically at the sky, she shouted: 'The final boss fight!'

No response at all from the rest of the group, Cirno continued:

'Yeah, you heard me right! A boss fight! And not just any boss but the very last one! Why haven't I thought of it earlier? I mean, it's been so many fights since the incident had started-'

'What are you rambling about, Cirno?' Wriggle cut in. 'As far as I'm informed, there's no incident going on right now. Isn't that right? Girls?'

'B-but what about the outsiders?' asked Mystia. 'Remember when I told you that the shrine maiden had been attacked? Well, people say that it had been them. Not only her, but the magician that's always hanging out with her also got injured pretty badly.'

Wriggle snorted. 'Aren't these outsiders just a rumour? You know, the kind that a drunken oni would come up with.'

'But I heard them myself! In the Forest of Magic!' Mystia protested hotly. 'And what about that maid who attacked us? What about-'

A dead silence fell once a sudden realisation came. All eyes, except Riina's, who had no idea what's going on, and Cirno's who was too fired up about fighting to pay attention to her surroundings, turned to stare at the winged youkai with anxiety.

When they thought about it, they didn't know anything about Riina. Who she really is, where she came from, and what her real purpose is. It seemed inconceivable for them that a powerful youkai (no matter the level of her mental impairment, her danmaku could pack a punch or two) would suddenly show up in Gensokyo and befriend a bunch of much weaker lesser spirits like them without some horrid plan hatching in her mind. And if that was the case, Riina was doing a great job, hiding her true intentions behind a broad smile and goofy behaviour.

_What if she __is__ one of the outsiders?_, the girls thought, stricken with terror. What if it was her who had put Reimu and Marisa in such a miserable state? It was quite possible; the attack had taken place before she arrived at the lake...

Riina, on the other hand, was more busy observing a blackbird build a nest on one of Daiyousei's tree's great branches to pay attention to four pairs of eyes fixed on her. The expression on her face was that of something between pure astonishment and admiration at the animal's skill. She wished she could make her shelter look half as good as the blackbird's cup-shaped nest made of straw and mud.

'Just look at that feller!' she said to others, pointing at the branch with one of her hands, completely hidden from sight by a way too long sleeve. 'See just how awesome builder he is? Much craft. Very sturdy. Wow.'

Then the creature turned it beak at Riina and squawked, making her jolt with both excitement and anxiety. The next second it flapped its wings and dived straight at her, apparently trying to seat itself on her head. Riina expressed her boundless panic through a complicated series of frantic, chaotic movements; all the others could see was her limbs and wings, spinning as if caught in a twister, blowing the playing cards away and sending snow-white feathers flying everywhere. Such a spectacle, given that and the hubbub it made, could be easily mistaken for a chicken fight.

'_BIRD BIRD BIRD BIRD!_' Riina yelled, desperately trying to get the animal as far from her as possible. Little did she know, the bird was already gone, now looking at her shrewdly from another tree branch. It took her some time (and her friends' reassurance) to realise her life wasn't in danger any more and that she could stop flailing wildly and risking a broken bone.

'Did you _see_ that killing machine?' she said with awe underlain with shock. 'Evil creature!'

That was enough to make everyone burst with laughter (Riina and Cirno laughed along, without any idea why, though) and put all their suspicions aside.

'Anyway!' Cirno slammed both her hands on the table to draw attention. 'By _incident_ I meant the Fairy War! You know, with the fairies who had destroyed my house-'

'Okay, we get it, Cirno,' said Wriggle, still chuckling and wiping tears off her eyes. 'But the question is: why would this new _boss _be so special that you want to call him/her _final_ ? Like, I dunno, you've fought, um, eight youkai so far? So what would be so exceptional about the next-' she paused for a moment and did some simple maths. 'Oh. Okay.'

'Even so, shouldn't the last boss be the sixth one?' Mystia pondered. 'That's the way is usually is...'

'_And_ you've never beaten anyone.' added Wriggle. 'Not even once.'

'Three of them were _mid-bosses, _okay?' Cirno was losing patience. Her crystal wings sparkled as sunlight was dispersed through tiny droplets of water was appeared on their surface. 'And none of them was fighting fair! So these were my victories, understand?'

Wriggle shrugged and leaned back on her chair. It seemed pointless to argue with a thick-headed fairy. Individuals like Daiyousei were the only reason she could bear up with her kind and refrain from deeming them a race of idiots for all eternity.

As a confirmation of her sentiments, Daiyousei was the one to come up with a most sensible plan so far:

'Actually, why don't we go to the Human Village and visit Keine? Now that I think of it, wouldn't she be able to solve Riina's problem with memories?'

'Like...' Rumia spoke, to everyone's surprise. '_Revealing _or _changing_ her history?'

'Yeah, I think...' Daiyousei bit her lip, wondering. 'I think it might be possible for her to remove the cause of Riina's memory loss. I don't know whether it'll do any good but... What do you think, Riina?'

'Does this Keine person have any birds?' Riina asked, fear in her voice.

'Not that we know of.' Mystia said. 'And don't be so prejudiced against birds, 'kay? It makes me feel bad...'

'It's settled then!' Cirno called out all of a sudden. 'Direction: Human Village! Rumia, you go eat as many humans as possible, and I'll take Keine on myself!'

'Go jump off a cliff or something.' Wriggle muttered to herself.

* * *

Her village was turning to no more than cinder. Men, women and children alike, running for their dear life, not daring to look behind their backs lest the horrors sewn by the grim reaper-like figures' swords were imprinted in their minds till death. Shrieks of fear and agony filled the brimming with smoke air and pierced the sky. The heavens, however, remained silent. They sent no saviour to answer the distressed ones' pleads.

She was there, too, amidst the field of dirt, blood, fire and death. Even Hell was a safe haven compared to what she witnessed. For before her own eyes, those who gave her life, raised her, fed her and took care of her were cut down by a gore-thirsty blade.

She knew the scene to the tiniest detail: she had the same nightmare ever since she could remember. Always the same, always as unsparing and shaking to the core, always making her wake up panting and covered in cold sweat. She got used to it eventually but it took her several years to overcome the urge to cry after the dream was over.

She looked around nervously. The attackers were coming closer and closer, each of them wielding swords 3-metre-long, their eyes empty like moonless sky and hungry like a pack of wolves. Puddles of blood at her feet were growing as the men (or rather – the demons) were closing in on her.

_What's wrong?_, she wanted to cry out but her lips were shut tight with terror. He should be there any moment: a dashing young man wearing a worn out brown hooded robe, a black staff in his one hand, a bolt of fire in the other. He should jump right in front of her, ask her whether she's okay and apologise for not being able to save her village. She would then close her eyes, while he was busy eradicating the hell spawn for murderers with a single spell. And then the scene around her would change, the voices and tang of blood would be no more and she would be safe.

But the nightmare didn't want to go away that easily. The swordsmen were now a few steps from her, close enough to hack at her. Which they did, grinning most monstrously. 10-year-old Latya fell under their blows, yelling with pain, wishing it ended as soon as possible. But no matter how hard she prayed, she couldn't just die, suffering a Promethean punishment instead. A few more blows and she would be broken. Insanity was spreading throughout her mind like a disease.

'I wish I didn't have to use it against you.' Reisen said to an unconscious figure lying on the floor, flailing wildly as though in a fit.

She was still inside the impressive white building, on her way out down the stairs. She wasn't going to let some random outsider boss her around as though they owned her. Only those from Eientei were allowed to do that. That's why, having previously put the younger one to sleep with her hypnosis, she decided to sneak out of the mansion. The sorceress who had captured her was in her path and it didn't seem that such a simple charm was going to work on her. She had to pull out her big guns, namely Lunatic Red Eyes.

Reisen could only imagine what sort of ephialtes was going on in Latya's head as she passed her by. She couldn't help feeling sorry for her even though she knew she had no other choice. Having gotten over her perplexity, she skipped towards the exit in a rush, not wanting to risk being stopped again.

'_M__ānasur Velpeā' _a strained voice croaked from behind her.

Udonge instinctively leapt aside, avoiding being hit by what looked like a boulder-sized comet-like object that crashed right into the front wall and busted the gates open in a fantabulous elemental explosion. Fragments of the wall, along with countless tiny projectiles made of fire, ice and energy scattered in every direction at such velocity that even Reisen took some damage by merely grazing the bullets.

After the fusillade was over, she took a quick glance at where the sorceress had been lying a while ago. Just as she feared, she was not there any more. When she had heard the incantation, she had been hoping it was yet another resident of the mansion about whom she didn't know or that the supposedly sickly girl upstairs had broken her charm. But not in her wildest dreams did she imagine her trump card to be defeated as easily as this!

'It's a nasty lil' technique you have, Fluffy' said Latya's voice right behind her back. It sounded as weary as before but Reisen could notice there was a tint of praise in it.

Fearstruck, she dared not move an inch and face the sorceress. 'H-how did you-'

'How did I break your spell and ended that nightmare with no end?' Latya finished the question for her. 'Oh well, truth be told, I didn't do much about it. No matter how hard had I tried to resist, it simply wouldn't stop. With each slash of a sword my will was faltering more and more and eventually... I gave in.

'Turning insane actually helps a tormented soul a lot.' Latya spoke in a matter-of-factly tone, apparently enjoying the explanation. 'With any sense of oneself, of individuality, of existence, pain has no meaning. The nightmare may continue but it's of no use any more without anyone to cause them anguish. Anyway, insanity brings a lot of ideas to one's mind. Some of them unexpectedly brilliant, some of them so crazy that a healthy person would never even imagine a possibility of it happening. And I got a pretty crazy idea.

'I was insane at the time, so it obviously seemed like a good one. So I basically injected a megadose of pure magic right into my brain. No one in their right mind would ever do that, you know, unless they had immortal bodies. But anyway, whatever it did, it worked like a charm. It would appear that a bit of magic is all it takes to block out your powers. Sorry, Fluffy, but I win this round.'

Latya moved her hand to touch Reisen's shoulder (and probably drag her back into Media's room by force), except she couldn't. The moon rabbit's figure flickered oddly and Latya's hand went through her body as though through air. The sorceress swore badly. She should've seen that coming.

'Lunatic Red...' Reisen was right above her head, her eyes glowing like lanterns, both index fingers extended in an imitation of a firearm.

'...OOOOVEEEERDRIIIIVE!' as she yelled, thousands, or even millions of pistol bullets came surging straight at Latya from all sides. Gaps between individual projectiles were so ridiculously small it was outright impossible to hope for survival.

Unless you bomb.

Through the thick rain of bullets Reisen saw a cyan-coloured dome expand rapidly around the sorceress, consuming all projectiles – illusory or not – on its way. She jumped away to avoid being swallowed by it as well but it had already contracted by that time, now barely an orb of light in Latya's hand.

'Absorption.' Latya explained with a smirk on her face. 'Since our powers are essentially based on the same source, namely magic, it's not a problem for me to convert your attacks into more firepower for me. And let you taste your own medicine while I'm at it.'

With these words, the bullets reappeared at once, this time aimed directly at Reisen. Her face turned white like a sheet.

'Okay, okay, okay!' she cried, raising her hands high in surrender. 'I give up! I'll be your... maid, whatever! Just... don't... shoot!'

Latya cackled nastily. 'I'm so glad we've reached an agreement. Still,' she frowned ever so slightly. 'don't you think your recent actions require punishment? I haven't had this particular nightmare in years and you... you made me relive it. Again. And again.

'But don't worry. I'm not going to kill you. It might only sting a little.'


	8. BE1-'Twas Only Easy Mode And You Failed

**Author's Note:** Done at last! There were lots of ups and downs throughout the creation of this chapter, but there is it. More cliffhangers and idle action for you to enjoy or hate ;P

Don't be fooled by the title, it's nowhere near over yet! After you use up all the continues, what you normally do is to start a new game, right? And maybe get some rest before you do. And that's probably what I'm going to do, seeing how I'm starting another year at the university from October 6th. I dunno how much time I'll be able to spend for writing - you can expect the next chapters to be either a bit shorter or their releases to be slower. Either way, I've been at it for two months straight and I'm not stopping now :) I hope :|

* * *

**Bad Ending #1 – 'Twas Only Easy Mode And You Failed**

Lord Von Miener was sitting alone in his engulfed in night's darkness chamber, slowly yet steadily going stark raving mad. For the first time in this century have his limbs gone numb and cold with fear – a thing unimaginable for an elemental sorcerer like him, normally able to adjust his body temperature with a mere thought, which can really come in handy when having to overcome bad weather or a nasty case fever. It proved that there was still some human within his immortal shell and a heart amidst his countless demigod-like powers, the notion of which made him feel quite pleased. He had never felt so weak and powerless, though.

His daughter's escort he had secretly sent to look after her had returned three days ago. With just one look at their stone-cold, grim faces he knew that they must have screwed up their job. Having listened to the report, he rewarded the soldiers appropriately. His dungeon cells weren't empty any more afterwards.

_We __had__ observed __the building for 2 days straight_, said the report. _Lady Media hadn't_ _left the house __at all__. __On next morning, __we heard __havoc being raised __inside, presumably by the baron's daughter or her maids. __That's when servants __came __into the groun__ds, some on horseback, and started scanning the area in search for Lady Media, as we found out later. _

Von Miener paid the baron a visit on the same day, right after hearing the dreadful news (but not before imprisoning the whole squad). He donned his robe and grabbed his blacksteel staff, his faithful companion and problem-solver, from killing psychopathic kings with godly powers to interrogating. With these preparations complete, he hurried towards Körnkastel fief with haste. And by _haste _I mean exceedingly fast, which is just how fast one travels when using instant teleportation.

He would have found Baron Körnkastel's explanations quite funny, given the amount of sweat he produced while setting a new world record in the number of stammers per second, if only the situation weren't so grave. He'd normally enjoy watching people's reactions to seeing the infamous Black Fang with their own eyes. It was as though he could burn their souls just by looking at them (which, by the way, was theoretically possible, although he had never tried that).

Whatever had caused Media's abrupt disappearance, none of the mansion dwellers, including the servants, knew anything. At all. As though Media had somehow managed to slip out of her bed at night, walked past the guards without being noticed and then went... somewhere. This was actually a hypothesis thought of by Körnkastel's cook and Von Miener had to call forth his inner strength to resist punching a hole in the man's face. But no matter what their crazy ideas were, it was a fact that they neither hadn't witnessed Media gone missing nor had they contributed to the deed in any way. It was one of these occasions where mind reading comes in handy most splendidly.

Even though the sorcerer had spent a little fortune to hire entire legions of scouts and spies to search every nook and cranny in the kingdom for a smallest hint of Media's whereabouts, he didn't believe it was going to do any good. Non-magical people were so inefficient after all: using up their energy most stupidly, having to rely on their own physical strength and senses and dying of dumbest reasons, like being shot to the head. All of these problems could be solved if only they possessed a little tiny bit of knowledge how to use the source of potentially infinite energy they have right under their noses. Technically speaking, a bit closer to the heart, namely: soul.

He nearly started missing those times when every other person he had met was a mage. _Nearly _is the keyword, as it had been a period of his youth which had been ruined by discrimination he had experienced due to his own kinsmen and war, in which he had fought. Nevertheless, at this moment, he'd give half his lands, a pair of his best shoes and his left arm for just one magician willing to help him.

_Speak of the devil, _he thought to himself disbelievingly the instant he sensed a palpable aura of magic enter his house. He rose from his armchair and walked lazily towards a liquor cabinet which he had once cunningly disguised as a bookshelf. He pushed a heavy grimoire bound in blue, fluorescent leather aside and pulled out a bottle of a one-and-a-half-century-old sweet wine. No sooner had he lit the lamps with a flick of a finger than his guest's arrival was announced by a servant.

'At last, the right man in the right place.' said Von Miener when the guest appeared in the doorway, bowing deeply.

'Come,' he ushered the man, showing him to an armchair right in front of his own. 'Just let me get the glasses, I'll be right back.'

' 'Preciate it, sir.' the man nodded, seating himself comfortably on leather upholstery.

If you ever happen to find the word _shady _in an encyclopaedia or a dictionary, you can expect a picture of Lord Von Miener's guest printed right next to the definition. It was impossible to tell his age: could have been anything from 20 to 50 years old. Shaggy bush of ash-coloured hair covered virtually every visible inch of his head, save for barely visible lips, cheeks and black little eyes that knew no rest, constantly observing their surroundings with a shrewd gleam. He wore a hood over his head and a long, tattered cloak, all in jet-black. The sorcerer didn't even want to look at his clothes beneath it, as they resembled rags picked up off the street after they've absorbed 6 weeks worth of dirt and mud. He managed to spot a couple of daggers hidden underneath them, though.

'There you go, Patzen.' said Von Miener, offering him a glassful of deep-crimson drink.

Patzen accepted without hesitation, thanking yet again and emptying his glass in three gulps. He then slumped back into the armchair, looking as though he was about to fall asleep.

'You can't imagine what hell of a travel I had.' he spoke at last, very tiredly.

'Want to bet? I wouldn't bid any money if I were you, though.' said Von Miener, savouring his glass of wine.

'Fair enough. I'm broke since that old moneylender, back in Æltstern, started to throw a wobbly about me not paying back. As if I even could! I needed the money to keep the guards' mouths shut about me _supposedly _snatching some finer items from Alsi's, the blacksmith's, wares. Insolence, I tell you. What is it?' he caught a glimpse of Von Miener grinning at him, shaking his head. 'You don't believe me? I... I've never touched those, not even once!'

'Oh, but I believe you.' the sorcerer said amusedly. 'After all, why would a telekinetic ever need to _touch _anything?'

Patzen let out a nervous laugh and scratched himself on the nose. His entire arm was strangely pale and covered in blood.

'Problems at the border.' explained Patzen the instant he noticed the sorcerer stared at it, and quickly hid it under the cloak. 'Bastards weren't very keen to let me through. Given my record, you know. A real miracle I had somehow managed to get off the hook. Good thing my mind was clear enough not to forget the spell-'

'Coming from abroad?' Von Miener asked, surprise present in his voice. 'But I thought- Weren't you at Körnkastel's?'

Patzen let out a laugh resembling a dog's bark.

'If I didn't know you better, I'd say it was alcohol that gave you such an idea. Who in their right mind would let a criminal and a vagrant inside their homes? You're different, of course, being a magical...'

'But your letter said you had seen my daughter on the night when she disappeared, no?' the sorcerer inquired. 'Or are you simply wasting my time _and _wine?'

The man smirked. 'Nothing better in the world than a good wine. I _have_ the information you need, though, so relax!' he added, seeing Von Miener rise from his seat. 'But I'd use some more, if I may.'

The sorcerer handed him the entire bottle. 'Go on then.'

'Right.' Patzen stared at his own feet blankly, searching through the corners of his mind. 'Where do I start then...

'So a week ago I was staying in a beautiful little village of Smorden – a heaven on earth, I tell you, these lakes! the forests! Our good old Zsardoch may be not so bad, but so out of its league! But anyway, I wasn't there for vacation, no. See, I had managed to track down one especially ugly arsehole, one of those to whom I owe the loss of my left foot! May he die in hell! Did I tell you this story, or-'

'Cut to the chase, Patzen, if you may.' Von Miener said, trying to sound patient. 'And keep it down, would you? I don't want you to wake up half of the house.'

'My apologies.' muttered Patzen and then he continued:

'So I was in Smorden. Dusk was nigh and my body screamed for rest after a day-long trip so I went to the nearest inn – mind you, the most luxurious one I've ever seen, almost no rats – and bought myself two pints of beer and a big meal with money I had scraped up – all from legal sources!' he added defensively.

'I took my time eating, even though I was so hungry that I could finish it with five bites at most, along with the plate itself. I was still on the lookout for that man, you see. The inn welcomed all sorts of people from every corner of the continent, so I had my eyes peeled for him. Never seen a stranger bunch, I tell you. Could do for a circus.'

'Patzen, what the hell does it have to do with my daughter?' the sorcerer asked, his left eyelid twitching ever so slightly. 'Are you trying to convince me that Media had travelled over seven hundred miles in _one _evening? To end up in some shady tavern, no less?'

'Hmm, and here I thought you'd want to listen to what I have to say. What a shame...' having said that, the ragged man rose up, as though about to leave.

Von Miener stopped him, grabbing him by the shoulder in a blink of an eye.

'Then _talk._' he said tersely. 'And let it make some sense, at last.'

Offered another bottle of wine, Patzen sat and talked:

'I was there sitting for about an hour before I had given in to fatigue. I hadn't seen anyone resembling that man or worth my attention in any other way. I rented a room for one night and went straight upstairs, too tired and full to even think about how bad my "hunting" was going so far. And then it hit me. I mean, seriously, I had a feeling like something hard had punched me in the guts. An immensely powerful magical aura.

'Out of all wizards or witches I know, and there are quite few, there's only one who has such a strong presence.' Patzen looked Von Miener in the eyes. '_You. _Obviously, I thought: "Impossible, right?" And so it was, I realised soon. It was strong, _absurdly_ strong. But still, a bit weaker than yours, when I think about it. And it was like you could taste the malice of its owner. 'Twas a sensation that made me shudder. One smart voice in my head told me to try and conceal my presence, and so I did. I crept up the stairs and hoped that muffling my aura was enough for them not to notice me.

'Then I heard voices, coming from behind a door in the far end of the corridor. That's where the magic user was as well. It was two women talking: one older and one younger, who I reckon would be your daughter.'

Patzen noticed the sorcerer's face turn pale for a split of second. He gestured to the man to keep talking.

'I don't remember the details, due to the beers, you see, but I swear on me mom and my le- no, _right _foot that I _did _hear both your name and the word _father_, repeatedly. The older one was saying something about payback and needing the young lady's help, but she refused. Should've heard that: "I'd rather die than help anyone of your filthy kind, you witch!". That's nobility for you, such spirit...'

Von Miener's thoughts were at full throttle, but kept running in circles, not having sufficient information nor a slightest idea who the kidnapper was or how had he, or rather – she, done that. That is, he had one suspicion. But that... no. That was absolutely impossible... Or was it?

'The witch then started to sweet-talk the young lady into helping her, telling her that she would let her go once she has what she needs. A few arguments later, she seemed to have given in. And then all Hell was let loose.'

The sorcerer's grip on the armrests of his seat tightened considerably, causing cracks to appear on its wooden surface.

Patzen continued. 'It must have been a combined spell, I can tell by the resonance it gave off. It was like... like a mouth of the Devil himself. Swallowed everything in its reach, even ripped the door off its hinges and sucked it in, so I had to cling to the doorframe so as not to share its fate. For a split of a second, I saw them both. The young one had kinda... whaddya call it... curly hair, bronze in colour. Wore a frilly long blue dress, too.'

_That must have been Media_, Von Miener thought, his insides freezing at the mere notion of it.

'The woman had a black dress on her but that's as much as I can remember. Then the spell sorta expanded and, before I knew it, the two were already gone. The people started gathering before I could take a second glance and had to clear out. When I finally came to, after the booze's effects wore out, I thought you might be interested. I owe you more than one, after all. So I decided to scratch my hunt for the time being and got here like a wind. Would've been sooner but, you know, them damn guards.'

After Patzen finished speaking, Von Miener sat there motionless for a while before asking the man for more details to help him clarify some points. He then offered him something to eat and a free bed in one of the unused chambers, to which the man gratefully agreed. The sorcerer also made him swear that he wouldn't go saying about what he had seen to anyone except him.

'And especially not to my wife.' he said, his index finger raised meaningfully, almost threateningly. 'I don't want her to know. Not after my consent to my daughter's visit to Körnkastel's house. She's got enough to worry about, organising Zsardoch's army. Once a soldier, always a soldier, eh? Anyway, it's for her best. Mine too. Should she find out...' and he gestured being hanged.

Having said goodnight to the old friend, Von Miener closed the door to his room. With a flick of a finger the empty glasses and bottles levitated onto a small coffee table near the wall, for servants to pick it up later. It was pitch black outside, with a thicket of tall trees blocking out the moonlight; but even so, the sorcerer drew the curtains, as though not even night birds or the night itself was allowed to see him.

When he ensured he was indeed alone, he disappeared from his chamber without a trace.

* * *

Far off to the north, where nothing but glaciers could survive in the eternal cold, a lone figure could be seen standing on the top of an iceberg. Von Miener loved this place – not for its eerie beauty or local culture and customs, that's for sure (unless he'd want to observe those of seals, which were the only denizens of the area). It was just that there weren't many other places like this where you could simply stare into darkness and think freely, not bothered by anything but the arctic wind and freezing temperatures. These inconveniences were hardly a problem for an elemental magician, though.

So there was some powerful magic user who is responsible for Media's disappearance. A witch, if Von Miener were to trust Patzen's not being too drunk the moment he had seen the kidnapper, who had needed her help. _Payback..._ It wasn't surprising to hear someone wanting him dead or humiliated at the very least. A long life is all you need to make all sorts of enemies, and you don't even have to put too much effort into it.

But the question that actually worried him was: _why_ would such a powerful witch, so powerful indeed to come unnoticed into Baron Körnkastel's mansion, take Media with her and then travel to another country in a matter of few hours, if not less – why would she need help of an averagely talented in magic teenage girl?

Ransom was out of the question. No sorcerer or sorceress with that amount of magical energy at their disposal would go to such lengths to act like a bandit. _Payback. _It was something personal, which meant that whoever this person was, she must have known him already...

Another problem was: there were very few magic users in the world in this age. Chances of two sorcerers meeting during their lifetime were so slim, that it was no wonder people were gradually ceasing to believe in any form of higher powers. True enough, Von Miener met only 3 true magicians in the last five centuries, not taking the likes of Patzen into question, whose magic prowess was level with that of a five-year-old from his childhood times. Still, none of them would be cocky enough (or alive enough) to dare challenge him. All except...

...except Latya.

His expression became very grim the instant he thought of her. And no wonder – no one would want to have had a daughter who had turned against her own parents, even if they weren't her real ones. All because of her insatiable desire for might and power...

It all started about a century ago. Von Miener was roaming around the countryside as he usually did when tedium got to him. He didn't have anything particular in mind, but secretly hoped for something to happen; it's been a while since he last saved a village from bandits. It wasn't out of the goodness of his noble heart, for he knew well that the only thanks he would receive from the commoners would be insults muttered under nose and curses.

All sorts or rumours were going on about him. Some said he had made a pact with the Devil, who allowed him to use unholy magic and let him live for ages. Others, apparently unsatisfied with the level of his demonification, claimed him to be the Devil himself and blamed him for everything from floods and draughts to village raids. There were few who believed he was a vampire and even fewer of those who saw him an an angel of destruction, meant to bring misery and death upon this world. But no matter which of these wild guesses were the most dominant ones, Sakhra Von Miener was commonly known as the Black Fang: a vile demon for some, a just avenger for the others.

Since he was becoming a living legend, he wanted people to remember him as something else than an evildoer he was always considered to be; hence his "patrols", as he used to call it. So one day he found himself strolling along a path in the fields when he spotted thick clouds of smoke on the western sky, way more than a simple bonfire would give off. To his horror, an entire village was turning into nothing but smouldering lumps of coal.

He "jumped" in space, right into the middle of a slaughter that was taking place there. He was too late. Corpses were strewn all around him, more common than single blades of grass on the ground. He stood there for a while, completely transfixed at the images of doom and destruction. For what seemed like an eternity, he felt as though he was back to his own hometown, which had shared similar fate to this village. Only then did he realise he was the only living person standing between a group of bloodthirsty bandits and a short little girl.

Small, thin, miserable child. She wasn't crying, not at all. It would've been so much better if she was, though, as Von Miener couldn't stand looking at her sheet-white face and a blank, misty stare that said she doesn't even care any more...

She was so much like him. Both had received a devastating blow while still young – loss of their loved ones. Neither of them could accept the joke that Fate had decided to play on them.

Having muttered a cliché apology for not being able to save the village, he turned to face the attackers. Dirty, drunken, craving for a moment's excitement at the cost of innocent lives. Vermin. Plague of this earth. He didn't hesitate for even a split of a second. He uttered the incantation, purple flames engulfed the whole lot before they knew it and swallowed them, not leaving so much as a pile of ash in their place.

He took her home. A child that later became his daughter. A child who showed quite remarkable magical prowess and Von Miener was more than happy to teach her the arcane arts he knew. A child that, having tasted power of magic once, craved for even more and more with each day that passed.

Von Miener secretly hoped that Latya was simply an ambitious, ardent apprentice, who had devoted herself to magic for the sake of knowledge and wisdom that comes from it. He couldn't have been more wrong. His and his wife's beloved adopted daughter who had genuinely loved them and always seemed eternally grateful for everything they had ever given to her – including a marvellous house and a caring family – eventually showed her true face.

She hit 25 when it happened. It was unlike all conflicts she used to have with her father – battles with words as ammunition, aimed at the same topic all the time: _Why are you holding me back?_ Von Miener realised it pretty well that Latya was no ordinary magical adept. In terms of magic, she was a genius, one that, given enough time and proper education, could easily surpass even him, the strongest sorcerer in the millennium. Unfortunately, Latya got the worst set of character traits possible to go with godlike powers. He had known for a long time that she was a great material for a tyrant, someone who'd like to dominate the world with her abilities and possibly even put it in shackles. That's why he was constantly reluctant to share the greatest secret to his might with her – the passage to the Void.

Latya wanted the infinite knowledge and the gift of immortality that came from the dimension with no time nor space, the realm once believed to be the residence to the Architect or, as some people call him, God. Countless repeating to her that the price he had to pay for this power was unimaginable, that he had found the exit from it by mere accident, that there's a risk she'd simply go insane once inside and never come out at all didn't seem to have any effect on her. She kept pressing harder and harder, which made his replies firmer still and his resolve unwavering. And then it happened.

He had to admit, he wasn't ready for the events to take such a drastic turn. She took him by surprise, hoping to force him into sharing this piece of knowledge with her by overwhelming him with magical attacks. He couldn't possibly die, no matter whether she dashed his brains out or tore off his limbs and set the trunk on fire. Yet, she was much stronger than he had ever imagined. Only with his wife's, Victoria's help, whose anti-magical abilities could completely nullify Latya's own, were they able to put a definite end to her ambition, as well as their relations. Latya fled and she was officially renounced by whose she used to call family. Her name became a taboo within the walls of Von Miener Manor afterwards.

Stars were flickering high in the night sky. The sorcerer didn't feel any calmer knowing the identity of the kidnapper. He knew just what kind of malice his former daughter was capable of. Killing one of his kin couldn't possibly be a problem for her. But was that what she really wanted? And was there a way Media could help her?

_But of course there is_, a thought struck him all of a sudden. Media's pattern of magic, the way the streams of magic are shaped within a magician's body, was nearly identical to his own. With Media in Latya's possession, all she needed to do was to apply an enormous amount of her energy to one or more particular strings in his daughter's pattern and then the portal leading straight into the Void would open. And then...

He had no time to ponder on that any more. In a blink on an eye, a large black spot, darker than the night itself, appeared before him, suspended in the mid-air. It was like a hole punched in the fabric of space or, as he preferred to call it, a _rift._

With a moment's hesitation, he let the infinite darkness embrace him.

* * *

'Knight to D4... ...and it's a checkmate!'

'Um, so... bishop to G3...'

'No, no, Chen. We've... we've covered the rules five times already, right? When there's a checkmate, like the one right here, your king can't move and you lose the game. It is over. No more moves for you. The end. All you can do is topple him over and play the game from the start.'

'This game is stupid! How am I supposed to win when I lose every time?'

Chen hissed with disapproval but Ran only giggled at her. She could see why Lady Yukari appreciated company of a shikigami like Chen at times of boredom. After all, they were so easy to intimidate and provided with so much fun whenever desired...

When she gave it a second thought, she _was _Yukari's shikigami herself... In the end, she agreed with Chen to put the chess set away and have a nap instead. Their list of things to do to kill time was growing shorter with each activity they had decided to try out. Save for dozing away happily.

While their mistress was away, it was Ran and Chen's duty to keep Yakumo residence in order. Not that there was much to do - no one in Gensokyo other than the three knew the exact location of Yukari's lair and no one other than them would be ever able to reach it, being somewhere near the realm's borders. Their duties began and ended with sweeping the footpath and maybe chasing some birds away, in case they started dirtying the windows. So with Yukari gone, the two shikigamis had a whole week full of fooling around, sleeping and being bored. Ran had a feeling that's what a shrine maiden's life must look like. Now she'd only need to have Chen learn how to make tea and they can start setting up their own shrine.

Lying on the grass and basking in sunshine, with Chen curled up next to her, Ran wondered whether it is just them or there are more people or youkai with lots of time on their hands but nothing to do. The weather was fantastic – normally she'd be filled with energy to the brim and her mind occupied so much that she'd be hardly paying attention to anything outside whatever she'd be at. Chen would probably be chasing after birds or mice and making her stop and obey would be impossible (as though it ever was). It was like a sudden bout of laziness has struck them. That, or whoever runs the wheel of fate was too lazy to turn it.

'Having a good rest?' asked a somewhat unctuous voice from behind Ran.

The nine-tailed fox jumped to her feet at once to see Yukari standing before her in her parasol's shade. She wore her usual mysterious smile on her face but Ran noticed quite easily that she looked tired and even... disappointed.

'Welcome back, Lady Yukari.' Ran said, putting her hands together and bowing deeply. She threw a glare at Chen to do the same. 'How was your journey?' she asked.

'The _journey _itself wasn't problematic.' Yukari replied lazily. She opened one of her gaps, pulled out a comfortable-looking garden chair and sat on it. 'Chen, some water, if you please.' she ordered the cat shikigami who skipped inside the house.

'I've had more trouble with my search, though.' Yukari continued. 'What a gargatuan waste of time... If only my crows weren't lazing around and looking for leftovers in trash bins, I would've brought the girl along and...'

'You have been searching for something, Lady Yukari?' asked Ran. 'You should have told me and Chen earlier, we would do our best to-'

Yukari chuckled. 'Trust me, Ran, what I'm looking for can't be found by conventional means, with all respect for your skills. I appreciate your concern but this is, as they say, _my _business.'

Ran nodded reluctantly. She felt somewhat resentful at the mention of Yukari's crows being dispatched to help her instead of her most devoted shikigami. Besides, she craved to get outside and stroll around Gensokyo more than ever after a week of idleness. And she reckoned it was going to last even longer; as soon as Yukari charges her batteries, she'll leave once again, leaving her and Chen to "guard" the residence from the unknown. She hated her life at times.

'So what are you looking for anyway, Lady Yukari?' Ran inquired, wanting at the very least to hear about something happening beyond the borders of the house.

'Chen is sure taking her time, isn't she?' said Yukari, as though she hadn't heard Ran at all.

'If you could please not divert the conversation...' the fox sighed, slumping a bit.

'It's not like I don't want to tell you... All right, that _would _be the case after all. All I can say is that I'm after something dangerous. _Very _dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that if it were to go in wrong hands _or _left on its own, it could cause serious damage to Gensokyo. And by serious I mean _devastating_. Like...'

Yukari paused for a couple of seconds, looking for words, apparently. She didn't notice Chen place a silver salver with a glass jug of water and a small cup on a small table to her side. The cat shikigami sat next to Ran and listened curiously.

'Imagine the entire realm falling apart.' Yukari spoke at last. 'Interspatial and interdimensional gaps appearing out of thin air on their own, making ordinary people from the outside world or even other beings from neighbouring universes enter our world. But if that wasn't bad enough, I suspect that it would eventually destroy the borders that separate this world from the outside. Gensokyo as we know it would be no more.'

Ran and Chen shuddered, although the latter one had no idea what the conversation was about.

'B-but,' Ran wouldn't give ground. 'If the situation is as grave as you just descried then why didn't you ask for more help? Mine, for instance. Or the shrine maiden's! Wouldn't Reimu Hakurei lend you a hand?'

'Reimu is currently going through a stage of growth where she feels a desperate need to prove herself in front of others. She wouldn't cooperate with me as easily as she had done during the moon incident. Not to mention, she doesn't really like me. And it would be pointless to ask her for help now. She's recovering from an... _unfortunate accident_.'

Ran noticed a malicious twinkle in her mistress's eyes. She started to suspect the worst. And the most obvious.

'Am I wrong in thinking that Lady Yukari may have had something to do with the shrine maiden's current condition?' she asked with a tint of sarcasm in her voice.

'Listen,' Yukari waved her hand impatiently. 'I had to break a couple of her bones so that she wouldn't go straight for the outsiders-'

'We have outsiders here somewhere?!' Chen burst out, her eyes wide with fear like saucers. Ran gave her another murderous glare and hushed her quickly to let their mistress continue:

'...and end the incident right away. Should that happen, Reimu would have enough time on her hands to start poking her nose into other people's gaps and she would eventually find out about Gensokyo being in danger. And if I know her well, and I'm quite sure I do, she'd rather die than let the object in question be in my possession.

'I've weakened the shrine maiden and magician duo and convinced them I'm on the outsiders' side. But at the same time, I gave the outsiders and little _push.__'_

'Did that little "push" include any danmaku? Or trains?' Ran asked innocently, knowing what the answer is going to be.

'Let's say I had remodelled their house ever so slightly. Don't stare at me like this, if you had seen that abomination of a mansion too, you'd be thanking me for doing a favour to the world. But no, I didn't touch our dear guests. Mind you, that woman is stronger than I could've anticipated...'

'But how is that a "push"?' this time it was Chen who asked the question, apparently starting to get the gist of the topic at hand.

'It's not, I'll give you that. But from the enjoyable talk I and the lovely mistress of the mansion had had, I've managed to discern one important piece of information thanks to which, should everything go according to the plan, we're going to have a full-blown incident that will distract all potential interlopers from disturbing me.'

'And that is?' Ran and Chen asked unisono, with great anticipation.

Yukari poured herself a cupful of water and smiled.

'She had let me know, quite by accident, that she's pursuing immortality. And I just happened to know where to find it and may have let that piece of knowledge... _slip out._'

The exact moment both Ran and Chen opened their mouths, their desire to hear more from their mistress insatiable, a crow sat on Yukari's shoulder. It squawked shrilly, making the two shikigamis flinch.

'I see, thank you, Goki.' Yukari nodded appreciatively and the crow flapped its wings to soar in the sky and disappear behind the treetops.

'The Moon Princess is going to have lots of fun with them, it seems.'


	9. SI - Couldn't Find The START Button?

**Author's Note: **The title says it all. This one took me waaaaaaayyyy longer than it really should, considering both its length and (lack of) quality. Studying is a horrible thing, indeed. The lack of free time is not a problem at all (at least for now). It's rather that with so little to do and so much time to waste you can't really help but, well, **waste** it. Yes, I know, I lack a backbone ._.

Anyway, here it is. I hope you enjoy, let me know if you do. If not, well, let me know anyway. Either way, feedback is always welcome.

* * *

**Stage I – Couldn't Find The START Button?**

Human Village wasn't exactly the way Riina had imagined it to be. First off, she didn't expect it to be so lively and crowded; it was a shocker for her to see a whole lot of them on the main street, chatting, laughing and browsing around streetside markets, and paying very little attention to her or her friends. Apparently they were used to seeing youkai visit their shops and bars on a daily basis or so, and Riina was most happy because of that. Her previous encounters with humans had given her a negative image of their kind: cold, brutal, heartless black-whites who care only about themselves. The villagers not grabbing pitchforks and torches at her sight was a nice change.

'There's Ms. Kamishirasawa's school.' Daiyousei acted as a guide to Riina, pointing at a somewhat run-down building squeezed between an apothecary's and a grocer's. Paint peeling off its walls and several windows broken, it might as well have been an abandoned shack that hasn't collapsed on its own only because of the neighbouring buildings supporting it. Like a bad apple in a basket of ripe and healthy ones, the school _did _definitely stand out in the worst way possible.

'The classes should be already over but I'm quite sure she should still be inside.' the fairy continued. 'Actually, I don't think she ever leaves the building...'

'A word of caution to you.' added Wriggle, keeping a firm grip on Rumia's shoulder. The youkai of darkness was drooling profusely at the sight of any passers-by, her stomach rumbling like a distant thunder. Gods know what would have happened to the village were it not for her companions who always tried their hardest at tempering her.

'Keine hates those who are a threat to the village or its inhabitants and she can be over-sensitive about it. Now, I'm sure I probably needn't mention it, seeing how a mere bird can startle you, but try not to provoke her in any way. Don't do anything. Don't touch anything. Weigh your words and... Scratch that, _don't_ speak at all.'

'What's got into you, Wriggle?' Mystia asked, watching a droplet of sweat dribble from the firefly's forehead. 'I know Ms. Keine can be scary at times, but that's really-'

'You'll see once you're inside.' Wriggle cut her short, seemingly not wanting to touch the topic further. 'And you, stop making me drag you all the way! Use your legs a bit!' she yelled at Rumia who was still eyeing the villagers, allowing to be led by Wriggle instead of walking on their own.

They were a few steps from the about-to-collapse school building's doors (which looked as though they've been kicked open at least a hundred times; the lack of hinges and the use of shoelaces in the place of such made the theory very plausible) when Riina noticed a shaved ice stand just right next to a large flashy store with "Kirisame Shop" written on a signboard above the entrance.

'Hey~' she stopped all of a sudden, her face very grave. 'What happened to Sno-ball? Where's she?'

'Come to think of it...' Daiyousei craned her neck around in an attempt to spot a pair of ice wings somewhere in the crowd. 'I haven't seen her since we set off... Do you know what could've-'

'Oh, she's safe.' Wriggle assured her firmly. 'Probably having the fun of her life, fighting The Great Demon Youkai Kappa King of Awesome at the bottom of the lake.'

'...the what?' the girls asked in unison, staring at Wriggle in bewilderment.

'Oh, come on, I had to make it up so that she wouldn't come with us!' the firefly barked at them. 'With her fighting spirit back, it's not the matter of "if" she'd start rampaging the moment she saw Keine, because she definitely _would_, no matter what! Trust me, it'll be the best for all of us if she stays home: completely safe, no risk of anyone attacking her, no risk of Keine erasing us from the history and if we're lucky, we might even not get killed because of Rumia's eating habits or Riina's potential power to blow up half of the village! So if we'll live to tell the tale, we'll also be able to come back to Cirno and get her out. Because she probably ended up as a block of ice, you know, with her body temperature being ice-cold and surrounded by water. Sounds like plan, doesn't it?'

Unable to get more out of Wriggle, the party entered a dimly lit corridor, its only source of light being a single old light bulb hanging from the ceiling on two metal uninsulated wires. There were several doors on each side but only a few of them weren't nailed down with wooden planks, rendering most of the classrooms impossible to use.

Despite not knowing whether the place has ever seen its better days, it was quite evident to the group that Keine Kamishirasawa's school was nowhere near the top position in any popularity rankings. It seemed a miracle there were still people who would send their children there, having in mind the eerie atmosphere the dead corridor gave off. The light flickered, sending chills down their spines and making Riina forget the grief over the absence of Cirno which she had considered not only a gigantic loss to them as a team ("What good can come of a party without an ice mage?") but also to her taste buds. She could kill for Cirno's shaved ice.

They walked upstairs, trying not to touch the rusty bannister lest it started to fall apart. They found Keine at her office which was most probably the smallest room the building held. Columns of books and heaps of paper took most of the already lacking space; a desk, a chair and Keine herself were squished between the pillars of volumes and encyclopaedias, shrinking it to a size of a broom closet. A candle placed to her right was glowing faintly, its knot approaching the end of its life steadily.

It was one of the most miserable sights in the girls' life, seeing the school teacher, form tutor and principal (3-in-1) working there like a mule, checking kids' homework, filling tax forms and writing petitions to potential sponsors for donations. She looked as though she didn't get any sleep last night, half-bent over the table so that one might have expected her to collapse and start snoring away. And on the top of that, bruises covered her arms and her face – a sight which made the girls all tense at once (all except Wriggle who had been in this state since their arrival in the village). Riina began to cry all of a sudden.

'Ms. Kamishirasawa,' Daiyousei said worriedly, hugging and patting the weeping youkai who had clung on to her. 'Is everything all right?'

Keine didn't react at once, busying herself with packing a ten-page letter inside a tiny envelope with a poor imitation of a stamp drawn on its surface with a pen. Once she finished (the letter now resembled a failed origami attempt and the envelope was torn asunder) she raised her eyes from the desk to see a bunch of worry-worn faces staring at her breathlessly. _My former students_, she thought nostalgically.

A smile bloomed on her face and she let out a suppressed, silent cry of happiness.

'My dears,' she said, blinking furiously so as not to let tears flow. 'it's so good to see you. I've been actually hoping for some of you to pay me a small visit, ever since Wriggle came here yesterday... But isn't there someone miss- Oh, yes, where is Cirno?'

'Doing chores.' Wriggle answered before anyone else could. 'We're doing turns at the lake and this time it turned out to be hers. And she's um... she's really sorry for trying to fight you earlier! And she's so embarrassed, in fact, that she was afraid to come.'

Everyone in this room knew it was a blatant lie: both Cirno's doing housework and showing sensibility. But Keine apparently decided to let it slide, for she was too happy to see them to inquire further.

'I see.' she giggled, frowning ever so slightly. 'Well, tell her that I'm not angry with her at all. She's always welcome here, as long as she doesn't bother the villagers. In fact, her last visit had proved to be very inspiring for the owner of the shaved ice stand in front of the school. He thought it would be very profitable to set off such a business, seeing how successful Cirno had been. In fact, he even offered the school a percentage of his earnings to support it.'

'That's fantastic!' Daiyousei clapped enthusiastically, having let go of Riina who had calmed down considerably. 'Is the business going well then?'

Keine gave her a grim smile and she slumped as though air deflated from her. 'Not really. People seem to have stopped taking interest ever since the free sample period was over. Or maybe it's not as high quality as they might have expected. Either way...'

She hesitated for a second or two and then shook her head.

'Oh, nevermind. I wouldn't want to bore you with _my_ problems. So,' she forced a radiant smile back on. 'is there a way I can help you?'

None of the girls was buying Keine's "I'm-fine-thank-you" facade. It didn't seem right to go ahead and ask her for a favour without doing so much as letting her share her burden. Also, they were dying to find out what was the cause of Keine's injuries. Daiyousei might have been a mother figure to the group but her authority paled by comparison with their former homeroom teacher. She was like family, and anything that troubled Keine was a matter of their concern as well.

Upon asking about the bruises she became very uneasy and tried to change the subject but she was very unskillful at it. It wasn't really hard to make her spill the beans; Daiyousei's pleads and Riina's puppy eyes were all it took to do the trick.

'All right, all right, you nosey little...' she feigned anger, shaking her head in resignation. The girls could tell from the badly masked smile that she secretly wanted someone to hear her out.

She began her story, but not before giving Riina a curious stare as though she wanted to ask "Um, who are you, by the way?". She let it wait, since there were five pairs of ears all ready and impatient for listening.

* * *

It was night, its black firmament bright with stars and the half-moon enshrouded with clouds. Spooky figures were creeping amongst the trees, jumping from shadow to shadow, staying out of random villagers' sight. Strays, vagabonds, rogues – all those youkai who found it hard to conform and coexist with their human neighbours; outcasts whose refuge were the woods, especially the one closest to the village, the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, or nearby caves.

It was a tough life, but they couldn't wish for another. No civilised youkai with the least amount of self-respect would ever approve of any of these _black sheep_ of their species. And it wasn't the brightest idea to try and reunite with humans after the village's entire population remembers you as the one who has been actively contributing to the lowering of its number. Once a monster, always a monster.

This night was of the more live ones. Several food-starved youkai teamed up in hope of snatching one, two, twenty villagers to satiate their week-long hunger. _It __**will**__ happen this time_, they repeated constantly, so as to keep their morale high. _It's not full moon any more, the hakutaku can't bring her powers to the fullest..._

Not only were they right but also lucky: even at night, I am often busy with taking care of administration of the school. Without more hands to help me with my work, I was sitting in the office, scribbling petitions as usual. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary – the streets outside were dead silent and glowing orange from the paper lanterns' light. Here and there a child could be heard crying, a nightmare having invaded his or hers world of dreams; a stray cat would make a racket in the trash bins, scared of a rustle in the grass; one drunkard would yell at another in a bar, only to go home in peace after enough insults and bottles were thrown. Just what one might expect at two in the morning.

Nearly half an hour had passed when I finished all the paperwork I had intended to do before finally going to sleep. Ignoring a pile of ungraded homework that was growing each time I took a glance at it, I left my desk and went straight for the bedroom downstairs. Immensely tired and my whole body aching as though buried under a rock for a month, all it would take for me to fall asleep was to touch the invitingly soft bedsheets...

Then a scream pierced the air with a force of a thunder. It was rather distant and faint but that was more than enough for me to know that someone's life is in danger. With fatigue gone in an instant, blood rushing through my veins and adrenaline firing me up, I rushed outside taking a shortcut – headlong through the bedroom's window (it's not like it had many glass panes left, anyway) and on the street.

There were no attackers in sight; as I found out some time later, they were lurking around the outskirts of the village, several of them on the watch and the rest busying themselves with kidnapping villagers straight out of their beds. But at the time I burst out of the building I had no idea what to expect. I could only guess and, as it turned out, my guess was right.

To ensure safety of the villagers yet untouched by the attackers I saw no other alternative but to call forth my powers. It's an exhausting thing to do, concealing an entire village to prevent it from being attacked, _removing_ it, in a way, from history; as though it had never existed it the first place.

Five seconds or so later, I was standing in the middle of a vast meadow, no sign of the streets, shops, stands or people whatsoever. Just a couple of shadows in the distance: the attackers and their prey. Seeing their numbers, my heart sank. I wasn't ready to fight so many of them at once, all of them youkai to make matters worse, and especially not after being worn-out mentally and with most of my power depleted.

'Help!' the captives cried desperately but I was too far away to do anything. There were multiple enemies in my way too, twisting their heads around in confusion, dumbfounded by the village's sudden disappearance.

It wasn't long before they took notice of me. They attacked without so much as a warning and the next second I was lying low behind a small rock, a curtain of fire pellets zooming inches above my head and singeing the tall blades of grass all around me. The moment a couple of their bullets managed to graze me I started to get seriously worried about whether I'm going to make it out alive.

The barrage stopped as abruptly as it had started. My wounds were only superficial, limited to a few scratches and bruises. But that wasn't my biggest concern at the time: what I saw when I got up was that the youkai were fleeing from the scene, content with the amount of human food they had stolen. My insides froze: at least ten villagers were kidnapped and there was little I could do in my condition. Nevertheless, I gave chase, trying to think of a way to rescue them and trying not to imagine what would happen if I couldn't.

The attackers had already entered the depths of the bamboo forest and it seemed to me as though I had still miles before me to be able to catch up with them. I was out of breath and my lungs burned as though on fire but I clenched my teeth and kept on running.

And then, literally out of nowhere, two shadows appeared on both my sides: seemed like their comrades, whom I must have not noticed before. I was too slow to react and the next thing I remember is a sharp pain somewhere in my back and me landing softly on the grass face down. Something thick and warm was spreading throughout my clothes rapidly – my blood. With so much of it lost, I no longer had any strength to get back on feet and defend myself.

The world around me was swirling and rotating and the pain was gradually fading away from my body. It all seemed so surreal: even my assaulters' faces, twisted in a gleeful smile and their hideous, cackling laughter were strange and distant, as if it was nothing but a bad dream. A nightmare that was going to end soon, the very moment I draw my last breath...

And then the sky itself was set ablaze. It became brighter than during a day, so bright that I would go blind if I weren't facing the ground. Tongues of fire fell down on those who had wounded me. It wasn't enough to kill them or at least knock them out but I could see the expressions of boundless fear on their faces and that they cleared off in panic towards the nearest thicket.

My senses, although considerably numbed, were coming back to me. It was getting warm, warmer, so hot that I thought I was going to be burnt to cinders. Not that it would make much difference: it was either to bleed out or die of overheating. I have never been choosy about the way I die. But I had one regret: that the village would perish along with me, the only one able to restore it and that I couldn't save anyone that night...

'Why do I always have to save your ass?' a voice that I recognised yet couldn't put my finger on it at the time whispered to me.

I couldn't make a sound but put all my strength into turning my head towards my saviour. Tears flowed from my eyes the instant I saw a pair of legs clad in loose red trousers and silver-white strands of hair reaching almost all way to the ground.

Mokou has come to save me.

She crouched next to me and used her own sleeve that she had torn off her shirt to stop my wounds from bleeding. She then stroked my head gently and told me not to worry and that she'll take care of everything. And then she k-, I mean she... um...

* * *

'...she... went straight into the forest, beat up the evildoers and rescued the villagers. The end.'

The hasty, clumsy tone with which Keine had finished her story did not escape the pack's notice, who had been listening to the tale so far with mouths agape in excitement. Nor did a sudden bloom of red on her face go unnoticed and Keine realised that too the moment she saw a curious twinkle in their eyes. All she could do was to pray that they wouldn't ask her any embarrassing questions.

And she knew too well that there's no way they are keeping quiet about it.

'Huuh~?' Mystia let out a disappointed sigh. 'It's over already? What about the youkai who attacked? How were they beaten? I was hoping for some more...'

'But still, wasn't it pretty amazingly detailed for such a story?' said Daiyousei, trying to hide the fact that she too had higher expectations of the narrative. 'I mean, you must have read the histories of the attackers, right Ms. Kamishirasawa? These opening lines... I was starting to believe it's just a fairytale!'

'To hell with that!... So you were basically stabbed in your back just this night and yet you're sitting here, working as if nothing happened?' Wriggle said, amazed and flabbergasted at the same time. 'I reckon that's a youkai for you but...'

'M- Mokou treated my wounds soon after the fight was over and the villagers were safe.' Keine explained, trying to sound calm but still blushing. 'She was here with me until dawn, changing my bandages and... yeah. Owing to her tender c-care and Eirin's medicine, I've managed to fully recover. And so that you know, even a fatal wound is not a strong enough excuse to skip work.'

The girls, although perplexed by Keine's odd behaviour, didn't have any problems with what she had just said. Workaholic for life, that's the Guardian of the Human Village for you, Keine Kamishirasawa. But there was still something wrong, something that just didn't add up.

Whispering, so that Keine couldn't hear them, Daiyousei said to Wriggle:

'What was that you had been saying about Miss Keine going rampant? The way you were flinching at the mere thought of irking her – I was convinced she would well... um... _cave_ us the moment we crossed the doorstep.'

They exchanged frightened looks. Being caved by Keine was no joking matter.

'I know right?' Wriggle shrugged, whispering back to her. 'It's damn confusing! Yesterday morning she was literally barking at anyone who'd approach her, even if you merely wanted to say "hello". And the villagers told me about how she had shot danmaku at some kids in the backyard just because they were playing with firecrackers. I don't know...' she bit her lip, thinking. 'If her bad mood was caused by a similar incident like the one she's just told us about, then it beats me why she's suddenly all sunshine and rainbows again...'

'I know!'

All eyes stared at Riina, who stood with her arms akimbo and an annoying smile on her face, suggesting she possessed some secret piece of knowledge the others didn't. She appeared extremely pleased with herself.

'Who are you by the way, sweetheart?' Keine asked but the answer wasn't precisely the one she expected.

'They must have got lovey-dovey last night~' said Riina, surpressing a giggle.

Keine's face was steaming and basically glowing. She tried to say something to protest but embarrassment got her tongue and all she could do was to stutter and randomly gesticulating and flailing her arms.

'W-who do you mean by _them_, Ri-... **Oh.**'

As soon as the truth struck Riina's companions, their faces lit red too, and with the brightness of a Christmas tree. Pure, innocent and child-like, the lake residents had little idea about the way relationships work in Gensokyo. Revelations like this one were always shocking and maybe even repulsive at first; like the moment when you are first taught about the physical differences between boys and girls. This time was not an exception. The girls were genuinely bewildered.

'I-i-it's f-fine, Miss Kami... sh-... Ms. Keine.' Daiyousei was the first to break the very awkward silence. She put her hand on Keine's shoulder, as if wanting to reassure her. 'W-w-we won't t-tell anybody, you d-don't h-have to w-worry-'

'I'M NOT HAVING A ROMANTIC AFFAIR WITH F-Fujiwara!' Keine blurted out and slammed her hands on the table, making the girls startle in fear and Daiyousei to jump back. The girls silently agreed it would be best not to ever bring this topic up again but were one-hundred-percent convinced she was lying. Her voice faltered the moment she uttered Mokou's family name.

'Wow, now she said it.' said Riina, seemingly not affected by Keine's outburst at all.

Hakutaku pointed at her, her eyes ablaze with fury.

'Who are you anyway?! A complete stranger, coming in here, saying whatever you please, inconsiderate of what others might feel...'

'But you two _do _go out, no?'

'We _don't!_'

* * *

'We humbly apologise for our friend's rude behaviour, Miss Kamishirasawa.' Daiyousei spoke in an abnormally formal (even for her, who was already a shining example of politeness) tone, bowing deeply to the ground. 'You say sorry, too, Riina.' she added, putting her hand onto the youkai's head and making her bow as well.

'_Owowowow_, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Leggo, it hurts!' Riina complained as she felt her hair being torn out by the fairy's strong grip. 'Such a fuss about denying to like one another- _Kuah!_'

'So anyway,' Wriggle said casually, her fist punched into Riina's stomach, causing the youkai to bend in half and moan weakly. 'Would you mind doing us a favour, Miss?'

'It's about Riina over here.' Mystia said, not waiting for an answer. 'She doesn't remember a thing about her past and we wondered whether you could possibly help her. She's our friend.' she added quickly, seeing Keine frown and looking reluctant to aid the winged youkai in general.

'No memories...' she muttered to herself, scratching her chin and pondering deeply. 'So am I understand that no one here has any idea who this girl might be? Where did you pick her up anyway?'

'Are you still mad at her about that-' Wriggle asked but was cut short by Keine.

'_That's not the case!_' she objected hotly. 'All I mean is that this girl, no matter how weak and hopeless she might appear to us...'

_You nailed it, Miss, _thought Mystia, Wriggle, Daiyousei and Rumia at the same time.

'...she might be something far more dangerous than she might realise herself! What if, the moment she regains her memories, she will bring yet another disaster to the village – no, Gensokyo itself? You must be surely aware of just how many incidents have taken place during the last few years; and I needn't help cause another one! There has been enough misery and suffering by hands of the plotters and their evil schemes to last a lifetime!'

'But Riina would never, ever hurt anyone!' Daiyousei confronted Keine. She was shorter by a head when compared with her former teacher but that didn't make the power of her stare any less intense.

'But I refuse!' Keine stared back at her coldly. 'I refuse to be the one to unleash a calamity upon our land so I suggest that you take your friend back where she came from so that I can get back to my work. And before you say anything, there is nothing, _nothing_ you can do or say to make... me...'

The way minds work is truly amazing. Keine and the girls might not have been aware of it but they all seemed to have thought exactly the same thing the instant she uttered the last few words.

_Her and Mokou. _Something they'd both prefer to keep as a secret.

She clenched her teeth in irritation as she saw nasty grins bloom on the girls' faces.

'And here I thought you were nice, cute, little kids' she sighed, hands raised in capitulation.

* * *

It wasn't a pleasant sensation. Imagine having your skull wide-open – not cracked, split open or damaged in any excruciating way – just _open_, for everyone around to take a peek into or waltz in without so much as a pardon.

That's more or less what Riina was experiencing, her mind being probed by Keine and her history-reading powers. While the hakutaku couldn't just read others' minds on the fly, in the way Satori could, for instance, it was possible for her to find out concrete facts about whatever she wants to investigate. Every object, every patch of land, every creature, every person, every single atom and its components have their own history, after all.

So if Riina's mind could be compared to a museum and Keine, to a visitor, the history-eating youkai would find herself outside its front doors, staring at a sloppily drawn sign saying:

**CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE**

It was less an insult, more a slap to the face.

'Hey, are you kidding me, girl?!' she yelled at the top of her lungs. She could afford to do that freely and without troubling the neighbours; being merely a projection of her own persona in the youkai's mind, no one else besides Riina could hear her in that state.

'I'll have you know, this is _not_ the best way of treating someone who's going to such great lengths as risking the safety of the world to help you! Let me in!'

'Now, should I~?' Riina's disembodied voice carried throughout the empty space around the museum. 'It's not like we even know each other~'

'Leave that to me' said Keine. 'After all, I'll be extracting your history from the depths of your very soul so getting to know you better seems inevitable.'

'But don't you, like, have someone already?' asked Riina's voice. 'Imagine that poor sweetheart's face if she were to find out I let you inside~'

'_Stop joking around!_' Keine roared, smashing the doors into splinters with her bare fists. She peered inside but there wasn't much to be seen. Complete darkness, just like the one spread out against Riina's mind. The busted doorway became fuzzy and, along with the rest of the building, it disappeared before her very eyes.

'Do you even _want_ my help? If not, then say it out loud, because I don't have time for your dumb games! I'm not doing this for you, and would have never agreed to it, were it not for the fact that I've known these girls for years (that and their blackmailing skills about which I had absolutely no idea). So do me a favour instead and-!'

For a moment – just a moment, a one that lasted no longer than a flash of lightning – the darkness had lost its uniform deep blackness and became clouds of swirling grey smoke. What was even more disquieting, the clouds seemed to conceal some sort of _shapes_ behind them – outlines, silhouettes? And then, in a blink of an eye, everything was back to normal. Keine was still standing amidst infinite emptiness. While it had left her a bit startled, she began to understand.

It's not that it was simply _dark_ inside her mind: it was rather her _memories _were _hidden_ beneath, obscured and unreadable at first, like relics of the past buried deep in the ground. Forgotten, yet well-preserved, they were waiting for someone to uncover them. An ancient message meant solely for the archaeologist. And there couldn't be one more worthy to unearth its secrets than Keine herself.

She was not the narcissistic kind of person, and yet she couldn't help it but feel it's true.

Fascinated by what she had just witnessed, she put her worries and doubts aside. Safety of the village couldn't have been possibly more important in any way than the need to satiate her thirst, her morbid curiosity. Just a thought of what the veil of darkness might reveal to her filled her with ecstasy.

She stretched her arm towards where she had seen the shapes.

And as soon as her fingers clasped around the air, she saw it once again. This time more vividly.

* * *

...death and suffering... wherever it is, I am there also; wherever you find me, murder and bloodshed will follow... the marvellous scarlet of gore... the very thing that makes this boring world a bit more...

_...__c__olourful_... wouldn't you agree?...

...I see, you wouldn't... oh, but how absurd it is: you, who don a mask of a guardian, a sweet mother who'd protect their children till her last breath and droplet of blood... you, always so nice, always so polite and benevolent it makes me sick... what a joke, what a fraud you are...

...but aren't you a beast at heart? ...a creature with a soul like the blackest of nights, endowed with so much power to sow the ground with flesh and bones and water them with a rain of blood... just what is holding you back?...

...what's the point of hiding your true nature? ...why would any of these puny humans be of so much importance to you? ...don't you hide behind cliched phrases such as "moral codes" or "feelings"; you and I are the same... deep inside you, too, wish to see the world drenched in red...

...scared of what you see? ...frightened of what you hear? ...why is that so, my friend, my dear kinsman? ...what fears could you possibly have, creature of the night? ...haven't you got what you came here for? ...wasn't your thirst satiated by unveiling the truth behind this poor girl's history?... oh, but how well I know that feeling... you see, I'm thirsty as well... except that it's a different kind of thirst, if you know what I mean...

...it's been so long since I last saw someone die... wail in agony... convulse with pain... it gives me so nice chills when I merely think about it... I'm dying to see it again... that, and take my revenge on the woman who'd interrupted me last time... it will be a pleasure to take care of her myself...

...I will come back, don't you get your hopes up... I won't stay like this forever, I can feel it... and don't try to do anything to prevent it; you can't anyway... and when I'm back, we're both going to have sooo~ much fun together, my friend... oh, it's not a problem if you have no experience in that... I'm going to show you a proper massacre once I'm back...

...actually, why don't I show you now?... I have many memories like these... dear memories...

* * *

'Miss Keine!'

It took the strength of several voices combined to make Keine realise she was lying sprawled on the floor right next to Riina's unconscious body. She found herself panting heavily, her heart speeding so much it was about to set a world record and her face covered in cold sweat. It was like a nightmare, or worse.

_No, definitely worse, _she thought, taking a glance at the senseless youkai. There wasn't a sign of fatigue or strain on her face at all. One would think she was having quite a pleasurable sleep, apparently unfazed by what had just happened.

The hakutaku stared at the girl with horror. She had been perfectly right. Riina _was _dangerous, and not just "dangerous"; more like something that shouldn't have been allowed to see the light of day in the first place.

'Miss Keine?' Daiyousei, who was right next to her, asked. 'Has something happened? Is everything alright?'

Keine wanted to speak, but her throat refused to cooperate. But even if she actually managed to produce an utterance, she'd have no idea what to say. Too many thoughts were cramped inside her head at the same time, and each of them unbearable, buzzing like wasps and stinging you when you try to make them leave you alone.

'...ke her aw...'

'Miss Keine?'

'TAKE HER AWAY!' she yelled at last, as though all the emotions she had been suppressing till that moment burst out simultaneously. Her mind became clearer than ever: _She's a monster. __She has no right to be here. No right to live..._

'This thing is an abomination... Take her back to where you've found her and leave there!' she looked wildly around the girls' fear-stricken faces. They've never seen her like that.

'But...'

'NOW!' her order sounding more than absolute, the girls had no choice but to hastily pick Riina up and carry her shoulder-high out of Keine's office and further into the street.

She heard them huffing and puffing and discussing lively in hushed voices from out of the window. She stood there for a while, until she lost sight of them, meaning that they finally left the village. Keine let out a sigh of relief. Followed by a sudden outburst of weeping.

_Just what have I done?_, she asked herself, covering her face in her hands, trying to muffle her cries. She acted out of fear, still under effect of what horrors she had seen within that youkai's head. She had wanted to ensure the safety of the village first. These few hundreds of lives are more important than a few individual ones. That's how she tried to comfort herself, to justify her actions, to be able to forgive herself. But she couldn't.

It was as though she let those kids play with a ticking bomb or, in a manner of mythical Otohime, entrusted them with a_ tamatebako – _a box that must not be opened, lest something terrible happened. And she let them walk away! Worse, she _made_ them go. And with the awakening of that monster, they are most likely to be the first ones she's going to...

..._I will come back... don't get your hopes up..._

…_don't try to do anything about it; you can't anyway... _

Then it struck Keine. _That's right_, she thought. _**I **can't._ But there might be someone who can.

Feeling a burning flame of resolve within her, she wiped the remainders of tears off her face and rushed towards the exit. It was high time she swallowed her pride and renewed contacts with an old foe that had defeated her twice during the moon incident.

Someone to whom fighting youkai and sealing evil spirits is a daily grind.


End file.
